There are so many wrong ideas about recycling and I am here to save the day with these recycling facts that I have put together!
- Recycling paper instead of making it from new material generates 74 percent less air pollution and uses 50 percent less water.
- Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil, and 4,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity — enough energy to power the average American home for five months.
- De-inked paper fiber is the most efficient source of fiber for the manufacturing of new paper products; one ton of de-inked pulp saves over 7000 gallons of water, 390 gallons of oil, and reduces air emissions by 60 lbs compared to traditional virgin fiber processes.
- Producing recycled paper requires about 60 percent of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.
- Approximately 1.5 million tons of construction products are made each year from paper, including insulation, gypsum wallboard, roofing paper, flooring, padding and sound-absorbing materials
- Recycled paper can also be made into paper towels, notebook paper, envelopes, copy paper and other paper products, as well as boxes, hydro-mulch, molded packaging, compost, and even kitty litter.
- Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy needed to produce new aluminum from raw materials. Energy saved from recycling one ton of aluminum is equal to the amount of electricity the average home uses over 10 years.
- 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.
- Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch. That means you can make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one can out of new material. Energy savings in 1993 alone were enough to light a city the size of Pittsburgh for six years.
- More than 50% of a new aluminum can is made from recycled aluminum.
- The 36 billion aluminum cans landfilled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million. (Some day we’ll be mining our landfills for the resources we’ve buried.)
- Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap Texas.
- Americans go through 25 billion plastic bottles every year.
- 26 recycled PET bottles equals a polyester suit. 5 recycled PET bottles make enough fiberfill to stuff a ski jacket.
- It is un-recyclable- you can’t make it into new Styrofoam. The industry wants you to assume it is- don’t BUY it!
- Each year American throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups, enough every year to circle the earth 436 times.
I have learned so much while researching for this post, some of these facts are jaw dropping! So, please let’s stick together and love our earth and try and protect it from any further damage.
References
1. oberlin.edu
