Facts About Recycling
Recycling is the process of making new products from used materials. This not only has many benefits for the environment, but also for the future of the human race. Using recycled materials rather than virgin materials in manufacturing:
- Releases less air and water pollutants
- Reduces demand on trees,water, and minerals
- Reduces emissions of greenhouse gases
- Reduces the need for landfills and incinerators
- Creates jobs which help the state and national economy
- Helps to sustain the environment for future generations
Extracting and processing raw materials to make new products requires a lot of energy. Removal or reduction of these processes in manufacturing operations results in huge energy savings.
General Facts About Recycling
- On average, 10-15% of the money you spend on a product pays for the packaging, which ultimately ends up as garbage.
- Up to 80% of a vehicle can be recycled.
- It costs about $30 per ton to recycle garbage, $50 to transport it to a landfill, and $70 to incinerate it.
- Recycling creates 1.1 million U.S. jobs and $37 billion in annual payrolls.
- The average household throws away 13,000 pieces of paper every year which is mostly junk mail and packaging.
- In the United States landfills are responsible for approximately 36% of all methane emissions. Methane is a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide.
- Yard trimmings make up 20% of the solid waste in US. Less than one quarter of this amount is recovered for composting.
- More than half of the MSW (municiple solid waste) that ends up in a landfill is highly recyclable material.
*Tip: Each section of the site has a quiz so you can test your new, or existing, knowledge of recycling. Look in the upper left of the page to find it. Good luck and have fun!