Recycle, Reuse, Conserve

Do you ever wonder how much garbage we produce? I do, as I walk around the neighborhood I am shocked to see mounds of garbage on the sidewalks from residential houses. As our population increases yearly, so does the amount of garbage we produce. While our efforts to recycle have certainly helped, the U.S. still produces an inordinate amount of waste. An estimate of 254 million tons of waste are generated by America in 2005, as the average America consumes ten times the garbage a person from China and thirty times as much from India. One person in the United States produced on average 4.54 pounds of garbage per day, 29 pounds per week, and 1,600 pounds during a course of a year. This number has almost doubled since 1960.

In 1990 the U.S. recycled only 8 percent of its waste; today this number has increased to 32.5 percent. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 52 percent of all paper, 31 percent of all plastic soft drink bottles, 45 percent of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 63 percent of all steel packaging, and 67 percent of all major appliances are now recycled. In 1986 only one, yes one, curbside recycling program existed in America. By 2006 this number has balloned 8,660.

Here are some intriguing recycling facts:

• Recycling a four-foot stack of newspapers saves the equivalent of one 40-foot tree.
• Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for 4 hours.
• Making cans from recycled aluminum saves 95% of the energy required to produce cans from virgin material.
• Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire commercial airline fleet every three months.
• In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage.

More interesting and depressing facts can be found at:
recycling.colorado.edu/education_and_outreach/recycling_facts.html

Statistics gathered from:
www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/pubs/mswchar05.pdf
www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/recycle.htm#overview

Check out:
greenliving.lovetoknow.com/United_States_Recycling_Statistics
recycling.colorado.edu/education_and_outreach/recycling_facts.html

Teacher Resource:
www.epa.gov/teachers/waste.htm

The EPA’s movement to increase recycling programs should be applauded, however, we as a nation still are creating more waste then landfills and recycling plants can handle. Are our increasing efforts too little to curtail the impact on our environment? Please comment.