Recycling Facts

Aluminum, glass, and paper are the three materials most easy to recycle.

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it can be recycled an infinite amount of times.

Most families throw away about 40 kg plastic a year.

The first real recycling program was introduced in New York City in the 1890s.

Paper products make up approximately 40 percent of our trash.

Every day Americans recover more than 2 million pounds of paper.

One tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year.

More than 1/3 of all fiber used to make paper comes from recycled paper.

Every year more than 900 million trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.

Around 45% of the paper Americans use each year is recovered for recycling.

Since 1978, the weight of a soda bottle has been reduced by 29%.

Plastic bags and other plastic rubbish thrown into the ocean kill as many as a million sea creatures every year.

Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

Plastics can take up to 400 years to break down in a landfill.
Since 1950, we have consumed as much as all the generations before us combined.

Every time a ton of steel is recycled, it means 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,000 pounds of coal, and 40 pounds of limestone will not have to be mined from the Earth.

Recycled materials can return to the marketplace in as little as 30 days.

To create just 1 kilogram of consumer goods, manufacturers create 5 kilograms of waste.

The average American uses 650 lbs. of paper per year.

Ford motor company indicates that 75% of every vehicle is recyclable.

The energy saved by recycling 1 bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes.

Nearly 65 percent of America's aluminum cans are recycled.

Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water.

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