·
Recycling and composting diverted nearly
70 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2000, up
from 34 million tons in 1990-doubling in just 10 years.
· It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminium
than it does to make it from raw materials. Making recycled steel saves 60%,
recycled newspaper 40%, recycled plastics 70%, and recycled glass 40%. These
savings far outweigh the energy created as by-products of incineration and
landfilling.
·
In 2000, recycling resulted in an annual
energy savings equal to the amount of energy used in 6 million homes (over 660
trillion BTUs). In 2005, recycling is conservatively projected to save the
amount of energy used in 9 million homes (900 trillion BTUs).
·
A national recycling rate of 30% reduces
greenhouse gas emissions as much as removing nearly 25 million cars from the
road.
Aluminium
 |
| Source: Recycle UK |
·
When one ton of steel is recycled, 2,500
pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone are
conserved.
·
Recycling one aluminium can saves enough
energy to run a TV for three hours
·
A 60-watt light bulb can be run for over a
day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pound of steel.
Paper
 |
| Source: Dreams Time |
·
If all our newspaper was recycled, we
could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
·
The average American uses seven trees a
year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about
2,000,000,000 trees per year!
·
The amount of wood and paper we throw away
each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
·
The average household throws away 13,000
separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.
·
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!
 |
| Source: Globalcry |
·
Recycled paper supplies more than 37% of
the raw materials used to make new paper products in the U.S. Without
recycling, this material would come from trees. Every ton of newsprint or mixed
paper recycled is the equivalent of 12 trees. Every ton of office paper
recycled is the equivalent of 24 trees.
·
The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a
total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same
ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.
·
The construction costs of a paper mill
designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new
pulp.
Plastic
 |
| Source: 123rf |
·
Plastic bags and other plastic garbage
thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!
·
Recycling plastic saves twice as much
energy as burning it in an incinerator.
·
11 recycled PET (POLYETHYLENE
TERAPHTHALATE) plastic bottles can make 1 pair of men’s trousers pet .
Glass
·
Every month, we throw out enough glass
bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are
recyclable!
·
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.
·
A modern glass bottle would take 4000
years or more to decompose -- and even longer if it's in the landfill.
·
Mining and transporting raw materials for
glass produces about 385 pounds of waste for every ton of glass that is made.
If recycled glass is substituted for half of the raw materials, the waste is
cut by more than 80%.
Reference
Recycling Revolution
