We live in a throw away society. Everyday roughly 680,000 tons of materials are dumped into landfills and that's just in the United States!! According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) only a small fraction of that is legitimate waste. 75%-90% of your waste can be recycled. We save a lot of energy when we recycle. For Example:
*Recycling ONE glass bottle will save enough energy to run a computer for 25 minutes.
*When you recycle ONE aluminum can it saves enough energy to power your television for 3 HOURS!!!
*Recycling fourteen 20oz polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles yield enough fiberfill for a ski jacket.
*If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25 MILLION trees a year!
*Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
When you take the initial step to really recycle in your home it can get a little confusing. The best thing to do is to contact your local municipal department to find out exactly what they will pick up, how it should be separated, and the dates they collect the recyclables. Recycling plastic and glass bottles, aluminum and metal cans, newspapers, and magazines is a great start, but we can recycle much more than that. Here is a list of all the other things that can be recycled:
*Batteries
*CFL’s (Compact Florescent Light bulbs)
*Plastic shopping bags (Bring them back to your local food store!)
*All paper including office paper, notebook paper, junk mail, books, etc.
*All cardboard and paper food containers such as cereal boxes, cracker boxes, and any other kind of paper packaging.
*All Plastic food containers such as the sleeve from a box of cookies, or a plastic cake container.
*Appliances, window air conditioners, computers (These items are very hazardous to the environment if not disposed of properly. Also, they usually require a special pick-up).
