Amazing Recycling Facts

Here are just a few facts that will help give you some perspective about the importance of recycling.

• Over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans are used every year.
• A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can, in as little as 60 days.
• Every minute an average of 113,204 aluminum cans are recycled.
• The aluminum in a can is worth about 1 cent.
• The average employee consumes 2.5 beverages a day while at work.
• Over 50 percent of the aluminum cans produced are recycled.
• Two-thirds of the aluminum ever produced is in use today.
• The energy you save by recycling a single aluminum can will run a TV for three hours.
• Approximately 350,000 aluminum cans are made in a minute.
• Around 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
• To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
• Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
• One million tons of recovered paper is enough to fill more than 14,000 railroad cars.
• Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials.
• It takes 24 trees to make 1 ton of newspaper.
• An average American uses 465 trees worth of paper during their lifetime.
• Recycling half the world’s paper would free 20 million acres of forest land.
• Paper plus cardboard combined make up 73% of the materials in the landfill.
• Recycling 1 ton of plastic can save over 7 cubic yards of landfill space.
• Over 25 billion Styrofoam cups are thrown away in the United States each year.
• Over 1,600 businesses are involved in recycling post-consumer plastics.
• Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour and most and not recycled.
• Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy than incinerating it
• Only around 27% of plastic bottles are recycled.
• It takes 80-100 years for an aluminum can to decompose (break down) in a landfill.
• Aluminum cans – can be recycled into: soda cans, pie plates, license plates, thumbtacks, aluminum foil, and many other items.
• Recycling one aluminum can can save enough energy to power a tv for up to three hours.
• In the year 2000, 13,500 aluminum cans were recycled every minute in California.
• Glass takes over 1,000,000 (one million) years to decompose in a landfill.
• Glass can be recycled into jars, jewelry, bottles, dishes, drinking glasses, coffee mugs and many other items.
• It can take up to 700 years for plastic to decompose (break down) in a landfill.
• PET plastic can be recycled into: clothing, fiberfill for sleeping bags, toys, stuffed animals, rulers and more.