Recycling Facts
- The United States has only 6% of the world population, but produces half of the world's garbage.1
- Recycling one glass bottle saves enough electricity to light a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.2
- 75,000 trees must be cut to provide paper for one edition of the Sunday New York Times.1
- 17 trees are saved when you recycle one ton (2000 lbs) of paper.1
- We throw away enough office and writing paper annually to build a wall twelve feet high stretching from Los Angeles to New York City.1
- If we recycle the aluminum trash that Americans throw away we could rebuild the entire U.S. airline fleet EVERY three months.1
- The United States generates approximately 208 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) a year. That's 4.3 pounds per person per day.2
- How long does it take materials to break down?
- Tin takes 100 years
- Aluminum takes 500 years
- Glass takes a million years!!
1 Cited from Cornells Waste Reduction Activities and Pennsylvania's Recycling Page
2 Cited from Keene, H.H. Recycling Page
3 Cited from the California Department of Conservation brochure