Recycling Facts

PLASTIC:

Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. 60 MN/day; 21.9 BN/yr . Plastics are known as the largest contributor of waste in the world.

1. Landfill

   • Water Bottles: 450 Years
   • Other Plastics: Over 1000 years

2. Energy Savings

   • We use 1.6 MN barrels of oil just making WATER BOTTLES.
   • Recycling one ton of plastic bottles saves the equivalent energy usage of a two person household for one year.

3. What is made from it?

   • Five plastic bottles (PET) recycled provides enough fiber to create one square foot of carpet or enough fiber fill to fill one ski jacket.
   • Mondo Polymers make blocks for guardrails from MARC's plastic.
   • Playground equipment, lawn chairs

ALUMINUM CANS: 1500 CANS EVERY SECOND

Every three months, Americans throw enough aluminum in the landfills to build our nation’s entire commercial air fleet.

1. Landfill

   Aluminum cans take 80-200 years in landfills to get completely decomposed.

2. Energy Savings

   • Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to power a TV for three hours.
   • It requires 95% less energy and water to recycle a can than it does to create a can from virgin materials.

3. What is made from it?

   • Airplanes, windmills you name it, if it is made from aluminum
   • New Cans!!!

STEEL CANS:

In the United States over 100 million tin and steel cans are used every day.

1. Environment

   Mining wastes, air pollution, and water pollution are reduced by about 70% when a steel mill uses recycled metal scraps.

2. What is made from it?

   • 42% of crude steel is made from recycled material

PAPER:

Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12 foot high wall from Seattle to NY (a new wall every year).

4 billion trees are cut down each year just to satisfy the world’s paper needs.

To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down. SAVE A TREE - Recycling a stack of newspaper just 3 feet high saves one tree.

1. Landfills:

   • 2-6 WEEKS TO BREAKDOWN BUT 35% OF LANDFILL IS COMPRISED OF PAPER.

2. Energy Savings/Trees

   • Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water
   • The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.
   • Making paper from recycled paper reduces the related contribution to air pollution 95%.

   CARDBOARD:

   • Over 90% of all products shipped in the US are shipped in corrugated boxes, which totals more than 400 billion square feet of cardboard
   • Recycling cardboard only takes 75% of the energy needed to make new cardboard.
   • Recycling 1 ton of cardboard saves 46 gallons of oil.

3. What is made from it?

   • New Paper!!!! Office paper, paper towels, toilet paper, insulation
   • New Cardboard!!!
   • It takes 7 days for a recycled newspaper to come back as a newspaper again

GLASS:

More than 28 billion glass bottles and jars end up in landfills every year -- that is the equivalent of filling up two Empire State Buildings every three weeks.

1. Landfill:

   Normally glass is very easy to recycle mainly for the fact that glass is made of sand. Simply breaking down glasses and melting those broken glasses we can produce new glass. But the shocking fact is that if glasses are thrown away in landfills, it takes a million years to decompose. And according to some sources, it doesn’t decompose at all.

2. Energy Savings:

   • Making glass from recycled material cuts related water pollution by 50%.
   • Recycling just one glass jar saves enough electricity to light an 11 watt CFL bulb for 20 hours.

3. What is made from it?

   Glass can be recycled and re-manufactured an infinite amount of times and never wear out.