We all know that recycling is an easy and effective way to make a difference for our planet. That doing your part to recycle helps to save energy, conserve natural resources, protect the environment and reduce the amount of waste going to our landfills. But here are a few facts about recycling that you may not know.
1. Recycling aluminum is a big deal.
Just recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to listen to a full album on an iPod according to the Aluminum Association. The association also reports that every ton of aluminum recycled reduces greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 13 tons. But we can do even better, Americans throw away nearly $1 billion worth of aluminum cans each year.
To find out more information about aluminum recycling, visit http://www.aluminum.org/industries/production/recycling.
2. Oregon was the first to promote drink container recycling.
In 1971, Oregon became the first state to pass a bottle bill law (also known as a container deposit law. This law has become a sustainable way to capture beverage cans and bottles for recycling. Under the bottle bill law, consumers can receive money (typically 5 or 10 cents per container) for recycling beverage containers rather than throwing them out.
To find out more information about the bottle bill law, visit http://www.bottlebill.org/.
3. It takes trees AND additional resources to produce paper.
To be more specific, it takes 98 tons of resources to produce one ton of paper. For example, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 19,075 gallons of waste water is produced in the production of 1 ton of copy paper. The EPA also mentions that when one ton of paper is recycled, it saves enough energy to “power the average American home for six months.” So when you recycle paper you not only reduce the amount of trees being cut down, you also save oil, water and energy.
4. Your old, worn out running shoes can be put to good use.
Instead of throwing out your worn out running shoes, you can send them to Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe program. Nike has been collecting shoes bound for the landfill for the past 20 years. The program accepts any brand of your unwanted sneakers and recycles them into courts for various sports and other products.
To find out more about the program and to find out where you can recycle your old sneaks, visit http://www.nikegrind.com/.
5. Your old makeup packaging can be recycled.
Origins will recycle your used up makeup containers. It doesn’t matter the brand, just bring your empties to your local Origins (in North America) and they will gladly take it off your hands and help you reduce your local landfill waste. In 2009 Origins was the first to create a recycling program for cosmetic packaging with the beauty industry. They also use sustainable packaging for the Origins products, their cartons are made from 80 percent Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paperboard and 50 percent post-consumer recycled fiber. The paperboards and cartons are made using renewable energy sources
To find out more, visit Origins at https://www.origins.com/.
