Take Action
We should make it a regular practice to recycle used products, however more than half of all recyclable material is thrown into our landfills. Recycling is very important for future generations.
The list of recycled products continues to grow with new improvements in processing technologies. Below is a list of a few common materials that are easily found in our homes.
Aluminum Cans
- More than 50% of a new aluminum can is made from recycled aluminum.
- The 36 billion aluminum cans landfilled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million.
Glass
- Americans throw away enough glass bottles and jars every two weeks to fill the 1.350-foot towers of the former World Trade Center.
- Glass never wears out, it can be recycled forever.
- States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.
- If all the glass bottles and jars collected through recycling in the U.S. in 94 were laid end to end, they'd reach the moon and half way back to earth.
Plastic
- Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap Texas.
- Americans go through 25 billion plastic bottles every year.
- If every American household recycled just one out of every ten plastic bottles they used, we’d keep 200 million pounds of the plastic out of landfills every year.
Junk Mail
- If only 100,000 people stopped their junk, mail, we could save up to 150,000 trees annually. If a million people did this, we could save up to a million and a half trees.
- The junk mail Americans receive in one day could produce enough energy to heat 250,000 homes.
Electricity Usage
Unplug unused electronics
- Even when electronic devices are turned off, they use energy. Save over 1,000 lbs of carbon dioxide and US$256 per year by unplugging them or switching them off at the wall using a power surge-protector.
Heat and cool smartly
- About half the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling.
- Routinely change your air filters and check your A/C system.
- A programmable thermostat can save you about $100 a year in energy costs.
