Why Recycle?

• Recycling has many environmental and economic benefits, including:
• Reduces the amount of land that is converted to landfills.
• Transforming recyclable material into a new product requires less energy than making the same product out of raw material.

Producing with recycled materials instead of raw materials significantly reduces the amount of energy, water, and pollution needed to excavate, mine, harvest, or chop down the raw materials. Natural resources such as forests, mountains, and bodies of water can stay untouched, while we use recyclable materials instead.

Benefits of aluminum can recycling?

• Recycling one aluminum can can save enough energy to keep a 100-watt incandescent burning for nearly four hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours
• It's possible for one used aluminum can to be recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can in as little as 60 days
• Recycling aluminum cans saves 95% of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from a virgin source
• One ton of recycled aluminum saves 14,000 kWh of energy, 236 million Btu's of energy, 40 barrels of oil, and 10 cubic yards of landfill space

Paper?

• One ton of recycled office paper saves 4100 kWh of energy, 54 million Btu's of energy, 60 pounds of air pollutants from being released, 7000 gallons of water, and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space
• Each of us uses approximately one 100-foot-tall Douglas fir tree in paper and wood products per year.
• 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.
• Recycling paper instead of making it from new material generates 74 percent less air pollution and uses 50 percent less water.
• Recycled paper can also be made into paper towels, notebook paper, envelopes, copy paper and other paper products, as well as boxes, hydro-mulch, molded packaging, compost, and even kitty litter.

Aluminum cans?

• In 1972, it took about 22 empty aluminum cans to weigh one pound. Due to advances in technology and processes to use less material and increase durability, in 2002, it took about 34 empty cans to weigh one pound.
• 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.

Cartridges?

• A laser cartridge takes 3 generations to begin to biodegrade. Some components never breakdown.
• Annually, more than 78 million pounds of plastic and metal are taken out of the waste stream through recycling printer cartridges

Plastic?

• Americans go through 25 billion plastic bottles every year.

Junk mail?

• The junk mail Americans receive in one day could produce enough energy to heat 250,000 homes.