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General
Recycling Facts
Aluminum
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Aluminum can be recycled using 5% of the energy used to make the
original product.
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Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television
or computer for three hours.
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American throw enough aluminum away every three months to rebuild
our entire commercial air fleet.
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Using recycled aluminum instead of virgin materials decreases
water and air pollution
and energy use by 95%.
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You can make 20 cans out of recycled material with the same amount
of energy it takes
to make one new one.
Glass 
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Recycling 1 glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100-watt
light bulb for 4 hours.
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In the coming decade, Americans are projected to throw away over
11 million tons of
glass bottles and jars.
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Recycling saves 25-30% of the energy used to make glass from virgin
materials.
Plastics
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Americans throw away enough plastic bottles each year to circle
the earth four times.
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Every hour, we throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles. (22 billion
plastic bottles per year).
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Five recycled plastic bottles make enough fiberfill to stuff a
sky jacket.
Steel
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Every ton of steel recycled saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400
pounds of coal, and
120 pounds of limestone.
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Enough energy is saved each year by recycling steel to supply
Los Angeles with electricity for
almost 10 years.
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The steel industry recycles nearly 19 billion steel cans into
new products each year - about
600 cans recycled every second!
Paper
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A 12-foot high wall could be built from NYC to Los Angeles with
all of the office and writing
paper thrown out in the U.S. each year.
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Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees.
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Every Sunday, the U.S. wastes nearly 90% of all the recyclable
newspapers. This wastes
about 500,000 trees.
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One tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air
each year.
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Americans use more than 67 million tons of paper per year, or
580 pounds per person.
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More than 1/3 of all paper fiber used to make paper comes from
recycled paper.
Composting Facts
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Almost one third of the waste stream by weight is organic waste
like food, leaves, and grass.
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In Massachusetts, leaves and yard waste make up approximately
17% of our waste stream.
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Each person in Massachusetts creates about 530 pounds of food
and yard waste each year. If all that material was piled onto
a football field, the pile would be 2,067 feet high, higher than
Mt. Wachusett.
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A 1000-square-foot area of lawn can generate up to 500 pounds
of grass clippings in
a single growing season.
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Use of compost can reduce the need and use of synthetic fertilizers
and pesticides.
Junk
Mail
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American’s receive almost 4.5 million tons of junk mail per
year.
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About 44% of junk mail is never opened.
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Every person in the US receives the equivalent of one and a half
trees per year or
approximately 560 pieces of junk mail per year.
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The average person gets 1.5 personal letter per week compared
to 10.8 pieces of junk mail.
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Approximately 40% of the solid waste mass that makes up our landfills
are paper and cardboard.
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100 million trees are ground up each year to produce junk mail.
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Your name is typically worth 3 to 20 cents each time it is sold.
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