Are you aware of the US waste production and recycling statistics? It’s frightening when you look at the facts of what we contribute to our environment. These interesting facts are surely going to motivate you to recycle as much as you can.
Solid Waste
According to the EPA, one person generates 4.5 pounds of trash a day, which results in 1.5 tons of yearly solid waste per person. Of this solid waste, 75 percent is recyclable and only 30 percent is actually recycled.
Food Waste
Every year, 21.5 million tons of food waste is sent to our landfills instead of composting. This food waste creates more greenhouse gas emissions than two million cars on the road. Food makes up the largest portion of solid waste even though it’s the easiest waste to recycle. Fifty to 100 percent of food waste is easy to recycle so it’s fairly simple for both businesses and individuals to reduce the amount of solid waste that goes into dumpsters and into our landfills.
Aluminum Cans
From 2000 to 2004, only four years, aluminum can waste increased to nine billion cans. Fifty-five billion aluminum cans reached our landfills. This is enough to fill the empire building 20 times over.
Plastic
Even though the most common method to reduce plastic pollution is to recycle it, less than one percent of plastic products are recycled in the US. We throw away 25 million plastic bottles per hour. The average US trash bin is filled with 12 percent plastic. It takes the average plastic bag 1,000 years to dissolve into the environment. We throw away two million plastic bags a year.
Paper
We throw away enough wood and paper each year to heat 50 million homes for 20 years. Recycling paper would save so much more than just our trees. One ton of recycled paper saves 17 30-foot tall trees, 380 gallons of oil, 4,100 kilowatts of energy, 7,000 gallons of water, and 3.5 cubic yards of landfill space.
E-Waste
More than 85 percent of e-waste makes it to landfills resulting in three million tons a year.
Glass
Making glass from recycled materials reduces energy consumption because glass furnaces are highly energy intensive. Recycling glass reduces the need for raw materials like limestone, soda ash, and sand. Only 22 percent of glass is recycled in one year.
It’s astonishing how recycling these products can have such a major impact on our environment and conserving energy usage.
Our Part… To Provide Recycling Green Programs for your office.
Our Goal… To help your company remain successful while becoming environmentally responsible.
Our Green Programs are a convenient and hassle free way for your company to be a part of the growing recycling process.
How We Provide Recycling Services:
An Express Recycling Associate will come directly to your office on a weekly schedule. All recyclable material will be emptied from designated recyclable bins. The material collected will be removed from your office and transported to various recycling facilities. The recyclables are then sorted and prepared to be reused in the manufacturing of new products.
Source: www.builderonline.com
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I’m a big fan of recycling, but when it’s convenient. In some cities I’ve lived in, I had no idea where to recycle stuff, because there were no means to do so, and I didn’t want to have to drive to who knows where, to do it. The statistics are frightening. I hope changes are made, and I think it would be great to have fabric recycling, because I have so many old torn clothes that other people can’t wear, but I don’t have any use for it.