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Recycle for thought.
Those of us that recycle know that we’re doing a good thing for the environment when we do it. It just feels good!
But do we really understand the positive impact that our recycling has on the environment and in our community?
Below are some eye-opening facts about recycling. No matter who you are or where you live, you are in some way
effected by recycling –or the lack of recycling. Please take a moment to understand the various ways that recycling
saves energy made from natural resources, like oil and water.
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10 Interesting Recycling Facts |
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Recycling a six pack of cans saves enough energy to drive an average car 5 miles. |
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One recycled plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 6 hours. |
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Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours. |
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For every 10 pounds of clear plastic water or soda bottles you recycle, 3.3 pounds of carbon emissions disappear. |
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For every 10 pounds of aluminum you recycle, you eliminate 37 pounds of carbon emissions from the air. |
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In a landfill, aluminum cans take 80-100 years to break down; Plastic bottles hang around as long as 700 years; Glass bottles spend 1 million years waiting around to decompose. |
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When you toss out one aluminum can you waste as much energy as if you'd filled the same can half-full of gasoline and poured it into the ground. |
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Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch. That means you can make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make one can out of new material. |
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In 2006, it took more than 17 million barrels of oil (excluding the oil used in transporting the plastic) to produce all of the plastic bottles produced that year. |
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In 1988 we used 2 billion pounds of HDPE just to make plastic bottles for household products. That's about the weight of 90,000 Honda Civics. |
By eliminating the need to manufacture new products from raw materials, recycling reduces energy use, in turn reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses in the air. That makes for a cleaner and happier planet!
Disclaimer: Only reputable sources were used to compile this list of facts and figures, but the Planet Earth Recycle cannot verify the accuracy or scientific validity of these statistics. |
