Recycling Facts

The Washington, DC-based Institute For Local Self-Reliance calculates that recycling creates 36 jobs per 10,000 tons of material recycled compared to 6 jobs for every 10,000 of tons brought to traditional disposal facilities

Each ton(2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three 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.

Did You Know?

 

• Recycling aluminum saves 95% energy vs. virgin aluminum; recycling of one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours(Reynolds Metal Co.)
• Recycled aluminum reduces pollution by 95%(Reynolds Metal Co.)
• 4 lbs of bauxite are saved for every pound of aluminum recycled (Reynolds Metal Co.)
• Enough aluminum is thrown away to rebuild our commercial air fleet 4 times every year.
• Recycled glass saves 50% energy vs. virgin glass(Centre for Ecological Technology)
• Recycling of one glass container saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 4 hours(EPA)
• Recycled glass generates 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution(NASA)
• 1 ton of glass made from 50% recycled materials saves 250 lbs. of mining waste(EPA)
• Glass can be reused an infinite number of times; over 41 billion glass containers are made each year(EPA)
• Recycled paper saves 60% energy vs. virgin paper(Centre for Ecological Technology)
• Recycled paper generates 95% less air pollution: each ton saves 60 lbs. of air pollution(Centre for Ecological Technology)
• Recycling of each ton of paper saves 17 trees and 7000 gallons of water(EPA)
• Every year enough paper is thrown away to make a 12' wall from New York to California
• Plasic milk containers are now only half the weight that they were in 1960(EPA)
• If we recycled every plastic bottle we used, we would keep 2 billion tons of plastic out of landfills(Penn State)
• According to the EPA, recycling a pound of PET saves approximately 12,000 BTU's
• We use enough plastic wrap to wrap all of Texas every year(EPA) source: University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Produces and maintained by the office of Waste Management.
• Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates one job; landfilling 10,000 tons of waste creates six jobs; recycling 10,000 tons of waste creates 36 jobs.

Think recycling is expensive? Consider this: aluminum cans are the most valuable item in your bin. Aluminum can recycling helps fund the entire curbside collection. It’s the only packaging material that more than covers the cost of collection and re-processing for itself.

Adapted from http://ontario.earth911.org/can/master.asp