Recycling and the Benefits
"Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle"
To recycle, we must Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Reducing is reducing the amount of waste and supplies you use such as turning off water when it is not needed. Reusing is using again and again and reducing supplies by using it again. An example of this is giving clothes to others that need them and drying towels to use it again and save water when doing laundry. Recycling is the process of making used material into "Renewed" or refurbished material. Recycling material includes paper, cans, bottles, and glass. Instead of just throwing them away, we can recycle and prevent future waste and reduce our ecological footprint.
Statistics and Facts
- In 2009, Americans produced enough trash to circle the Earth 24 times.
- Over 75% of waste is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.
- We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste each year. If we composted that food, it would reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas as taking 2 million cars off the rode.
- Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic bottles every hour.
- In 2009, Americans threw away almost 9 million tons of glass. That could fill enough tractor trailers to stretch from NYC to LA (and back!)
- If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25 million trees each year.