Some Facts About Recycling

1. The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash every day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year.​
2. In 2009, Americans produced enough trash to circle the Earth 24 times.​
3. Over 75% of waste is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.​
4. We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste each year. If we composted that food, it would reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas as taking 2 million cars off the road.​
5. Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic bottles every hour.​
6. In 2010, paper recycling had increased over 89% since 1990.​
7. If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25 million trees each year.

From www.dosomething.org

Plastics

 

Ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? This 27,000 square mile area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is where a lot of our discarded plastic ends up. The ocean's currents trap millions of tons of floating debris in this gyre, where they eventually breakdown, and are consumed by wildlife. By increasing the rate of recycling of plastics, we can help keep this dangerous material out of our oceans.

Paper & Cardboard

 

How is new paper and cardboard manufactured? Mostly through deforestation, or the cutting down of trees. According to www.ecology.com, nearly 4 billion trees are cut down worldwide every year, and that's just to make paper! While not all of it is recyclable, it sure would be nice to slow down deforestation. The best way to slow deforestation, and save trees is by increasing recycling efforts worldwide.