Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil, and 4,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity — enough energy to power the average American home for five months. (EPA, 2008)
Recycling paper instead of making it from new material generates 74 percent less air pollution and uses 50 percent less water. (EPA, 2008)
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.
In 1865, an estimated 10,000 hogs roamed New York City, eating garbage. Now, one of every six U.S. trucks is a garbage truck.
Styrofoam is not recyclable — you can't make it into new styrofoam. The industry wants you to assume it is — don't BUY it!
Americans burned and buried over $1 billion in gross scrap revenues in 2004 (Waste Management World, Sept-Oct. 2005)
Americans throw away enough aluminum every month to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet
The 36 billion aluminum cans landfilled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million. Some day we'll be mining our landfills for the resources we've buried!
Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap Texas.
Americans throw away enough office and writing paper each year to build a wall twelve-feet high stretching from New York City to Los Angeles.
