Interesting Facts About Waste and Recycling

Over the course of the day one probably is told to recycle at least once. Most people do not even stop to consider why. But I hope that after reading these fun and interesting facts about how much waste Americans go through the average person will stop and think about recycling. The impact recycling can have on the environment is amazing. There are benefits to recycling as well. Aluminum cans as well as glass bottles, in some states, will put cash in your wallet. Always a plus. Not to mention the money saved by not having to buy trash bags as often. My family of three went from taking a 13 gallon bag of trash out everyday to two 13 gallon bags a week. Saving five bags a week really adds up. Now that money is staying where it should - in your wallet. It's is time to find out some interesting facts about waste production and why recycling really works.

Fun Facts about Trash

Research done by Cleanair.org shows that the average person creates up to 56 tons of trash. That is 112,000 pounds. Now multiply that by how many members reside under your roof and the numbers just become astronomical. Every single day in the United States people throw away enough garbage to fill up 63,000 garbage trucks. After years of having to use washable diapers companies created disposable diapers. Great for convenience and Mom's horrible for the environment. On average there are 49 million diapers thrown away per day and because of what they are made out of they will still be in the landfill 300 years from the day they arrived. Another huge problem for landfills is plastic bottles. Cleanair.org states, that " Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour." Not only can Americans cut back on throwing away plastic bottles by recycling them but they can also save money by investing in a water filtration system to be used at home. Cutting down on the number of plastic bottles bought all together.

Aluminum Can Information

As stated earlier, recycling aluminum cans can make you money. After realizing that Americans throw away enough aluminum cans to rebuild our commercial air fleet every three months, and enough iron and steel to supply all our nation's automakers everyday I couldn't believe it. Cleanair.org also taught me that "throwing away one aluminum can wastes as much energy as if that can were 1/2 full of gasoline." Now there is a fact that will make anyone stop and think; would we rather recycle and make money or continue to waste money.

Recycle Recycle Recycle

After realizing how wasteful Americans are on average I knew it was time to do my part. By recycling an aluminum soda can we can save 96% of the energy used to make a can from ore. Recycling one ton (2000 lbs) of cardboard saves over nine cubic yards of landfill space. Because 900,000,000 trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills it is important to know that one ton of paper made from recycled pulp saves 17 trees, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 7,000 gallons of water, 4,200 kilowatt hours (enough to heat your home for half year), 390 gallons of oil, and prevents 60 pounds of air pollutants. While it may seem like a losing battle it does not have to be that way. Just by recycling the daily paper and junk mail saves trees, energy, and in the long run you money.

http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html