How much do you know about recycling?

Recycling is the process of taking a product at the end of its useful “life” and using all or part of it to make another useful product. The internationally recognized symbol for recycling includes three hours moving in a triangle. Each arrow represents a different phase of the recycling process: collection, re-manufacture, and resale.

You may have known most of that but did you know:

• Each year American throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam (an un-recyclable material) cups, enough every year to circle the earth 436 times?
• Glass never wears out — it can be recycled forever. We save over a ton of resources for every ton of glass recycled.
• 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?
• 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.
• For every1 ton of plastic that is recycled we save the equivalent of 2 people’s energy use for 1 year, the amount of water used by 1 person in 2 months’ time and almost 2000 pounds of oil.

November 15 is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting recycling programs in this country. Help to spread the word to family, friends, and your community.

Find ways to get involved in your community recycling programs by visiting http://earth911.com/america-recycles-day/.

Love Our Planet,

Jane