In general the word recycling could mean anything from scrap metal to dog poop. That’s quite a spectrum, but what are the recycling facts, as much as we can determine. Is recycling working, can we recycle the planets health back. Can we curb the decay of our planet from all the bad we’ve done to it..or have we?
Recycling Facts
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Without exception, recycling is the top action society can do to simultaneously improve: the environment, the economy, sustainable manufacturing and to prevent waste from going into oceans.
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When U.S. recycling levels reach 75% it will be the environmental and CO2 equivalent of removing 55 million cars from U.S. roads each year.
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When U.S. recycling levels reach 75% it will generate 1.5 million new jobs in the U.S. (net).
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Manufacturers truly want these materials back to reuse in their manufacturing, but they aren’t able to reuse the materials if people don’t recycle right.
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Every three months, Americans throw enough aluminum in the landfills to build our nation’s entire commercial air fleet.
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The average person has the opportunity to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime.
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Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to power a TV for three hours.
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It requires 95% less energy and water to recycle a can than it does to create a can from virgin materials.
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In 2007, 82% equalling 1.8 million tons of ewaste (various electronics e.g. TVs, cell phones, computers etc) ended up in landfills.
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In 1998, the National Safety Council study estimated about 20 million computers became obsolete within 1 year. In 2007, that number increased to 40 million.
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Electronic waste total approximately 2% of the waste stream in the U.S.
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Several states have now created mandatory collection and recycling programs for electronics.
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The nonprofit standardized label mission is the #1 solution to help society begin to recycle right and therefore, help recycling begin to thrive.
Well, that’s quite a bit to digest. 40 million computers are obsolete..that probably means what i’m typing on right this minute will be in some waste unit by the end of the year. Creating over a million jobs, that sounds fantastic, the only problem is the majority of those jobs are needed in large recycling facilities that haven’t even been built yet. Don’t hold your breathe.