Thought Provoking Recycling Facts
source: http://Earth911.org
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- antoine_99
- added this
- A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can, in as little as 60 days. That's closed loop recycling at its finest!
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours -- or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.
- To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
- Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
- 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!
- Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!
- Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!
- The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours or a compact fluorescent bulb for 20 hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.
- The US population discards each year 16,000,000,000 diapers, 1,600,000,000 pens, 2,000,000,000 razor blades, 220,000,000 car tires, and enough aluminum to rebuild the US commercial air fleet four times over.
- Out of every $10 spent buying things, $1 (10%) goes for packaging that is thrown away. Packaging represents about 65% of household trash.
- Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute!
- A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
More at link:
http://www.recycling-revolution.com/recycling-facts.html
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SiobainF
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I would like to suggest a site for free/swaps in your area. Check it out! save some money and gain some time
- 2 years ago
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SiobainF
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sfinfgeld2
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Very interesting collection of facts...pretty troubling, too. I had no idea that one quart of motor oil could do so much damage.
A few weeks ago, this article ("10 Things You Might Not Know About Recycling In The US" http://www.greenwala.com/profiles/3446-Kieran-K/blog/4429-10-Things-You-Might-No... ) was also posted here on Current.
Between both of them, we should all have enough comprehension of what we're doing wrong to hopefully take the initiative and try to do something right for a change.
Who's with me on this?
- 3 years ago
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sfinfgeld2
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antoine_99
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Sometimes you may get discouraged thinking that recycling one aluminum can (for instance) doesn't really make a difference. But these facts show how much energy, etc. that you can save, and they really motivate me when I'm feeling to lazy to recycle.
- 3 years ago
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antoine_99
