Tag Archives: why should we recycle

DON’T TRASH OUR FUTURE – part 1

Posted on by countoncross

This is part 1 of an ongoing series providing information, tools, tips, facts, secrets, ideas, and more.  I will cover the different ways we can do more to recycle in our homes and offices, where our garbage goes, the recycling process, different ways we can all go green, how recycling helps, and much, much more. 

WHY SHOULD WE RECYCLE:

Recycling is the process of turning one products useful parts into a new product.  It is true that recycling reduces the need for landfills, but it does much more than that.  By recycling, you are conserving natural resources like trees, metal, minerals, oil, water, etc.  This also reduces the amount of pollution and greenhouse gases released into the environment and conserves energy. 

As you know I am a big fan of “fun facts.”  I have put together a few NOT so fun facts to get this series started:

  • The average American uses about the equivalent of one 100-foot-tall Douglas fir-tree in paper and wood products each year.
  • Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
  • Recycling a four-foot stack of newspapers saves the equivalent of one 40-foot fir-tree.
  • If only 100,000 people stopped their junk mail, we could save up to 150,000 trees annually.
  • Making paper from recycled material uses 60% less energy than making virgin paper.
  • The average American throws out about 61 lbs of tin cans every month.
  • Americans throw away enough aluminum every month to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.
  • Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.
  • An aluminum can recycled today will be back on the grocery shelf in about 60 days.
  • If we recycled all of our aluminum cans for one year, we could save enough energy to light Washington, D.C. for 3.7 years.
  • Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap Texas.
  • The average American uses approximately 1 billion shopping bags, creating 300,000 tons of landfill waste.
  • In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his/her adult weight in garbage. 
  • Motor oil never wears out; it just gets dirty. Oil can be recycled, re-refined and used again, reducing our reliance on imported oil.
  • Each year American throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups, enough every year to circle the earth 436 times.
  • A full bath tub requires about 70 gallons of water, while taking a five-minute shower uses only 10-25 gallons of water.
  • A microwave oven uses about 50 percent less energy than a conventional oven.
  • An estimated 80 million Hershey’s Kisses are wrapped each day, using enough aluminum foil to cover over 50 acres of space.  Most of that foil goes into the trash.
  • A typical family consumes 182 gallons of soda, 29 gallons of juice, 104 gallons of milk, and 26 gallons of bottled water a year.  Most of these containers end up in landfills.

To be continued……

DON\’T TRASH OUR FUTURE – Even Sponge Bob Recycles