3. Metals Aluminum: We use an average of 350 aluminum cans per year per person in the U.S.
4. Metals There are over 80 Billion aluminum cans used each year world wide An aluminum can that is thrown away today will still be a can 500 years from now There is no limit to how many times an aluminum can may be recycled
5. Iron and Steel There is enough old iron and steel in the U.S. that if it was all recycled and re-used, there would be no need to mine or produce any new materials
6. Plastics Americans use 2.5 Million plastic bottles every hour In the U.S. we use 100 Billion plastic bags every year and less than ½ of 1% are recycled About 7% of what is in out land-fills is recyclable plastic recycling plastics uses roughly 10 percent of the energy that it takes to make plastic from virgin materials.
7. Glass Americans throw away enough glass to fill 2 sky-scrappers every 2 weeks Glass never “wears out” and can be recycled forever For every ton (2000 lbs) of glass recycled, saves over one ton of natural resources and over 384 pounds of toxic mining waste being made.
8. Paper Each week 500,000 trees are used to produce only news papers, and 2/3 of them are never recycled About 1 billion trees worth of paper is thrown away each year in the U.S. alone
9. Paper Nearly 50% of what is in our land-fills is recyclable paper or cardboard Every ton of paper recycled saves; 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water
10. Paper Buying recycled paper products reduces water pollution by 35%, air pollution by 70% over buying “virgin” paper Paper can only be recycled 4 times before it is gone. 25% is lost in the recycling process
11. Paper The number 1 green-house gas threatening the environment is methane. The number 1 source of methane gas is decomposing paper in our land-fills
12. Yard Waste In the U.S. an estimated 24 Million tons of leaves and grass clippings are thrown away each year Leaves and lawn clippings can be used as compost and put back into gardens and flowerbeds making natural furtilizers
13. Yard Waste Mulching other green waste along with using yard leaves and lawn clippings makes great week barriers and reduces water consumption Composting household waste such as egg shells and vegetable waste is great for gardens and flower beds
14. Benefits of Recycling Energy Savings Less Water Pollution Less Air Pollution And best of all, More Trees!
15. Why don’t we Recycle? It’s too hard… I don’t have time! My city doesn’t do recycling, and I don’t have a recycling facility close to my house…
16. Just do it! If nothing else, we should recycle paper, plastic and aluminum. These items are easy to recycle and even if your city doesn’t do curb-side pick up, there are drop-off locations all over that will accept these items
17. It’s not that hard! On the average, recycling facilities pay 70 cents per pound for aluminum cans. 25 cans equal 1 pound and that’s not a bad way to earn back a little money spent on buying the product.
18. More info on Recycling http://utahrecycles.org/ Recycling tips and info http://earth911.com/ Finding recycling centers all over the country http://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/ Recycling facts http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=recycling&qpvt=recycling&FORM=EWRE Recycling news of the U.S.
