This past weekend, my son had an opportunity to play baseball at a charity tournament for kids. As I sat there watching the game, I thought how nice it is to be able to give back to those in need. What a great feeling it is to know that you are doing something to help others.
I then looked over at the garbage pail near the field and saw that it was overflowing with plastic water bottles and aluminum cans. I started thinking about recycling, and how it helps our environment. People still don’t realize how every small step counts, and when it comes to recycling, we all need to do our part. I feel “we” are on the right track, but more has to be done. It is our time to start giving back to the environment!
I decided to look up some interesting facts about recycling to remind myself why recycling is so important. I would like to share them with you:
~ Recycling helps slow down the process of global warming.
~ Recycling is great for the earth. Fewer trees are cut down when we recycle paper.
~ Recycling reduces the amount of waste in landfills, creating a cleaner, more spacious environment.
~A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can in as little as 60 days.
~ More than 20,000,000 Hershey’s kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of aluminum foil. Most of us don’t realize this but that foil is recyclable.
~ Every ton of recycled office paper saves 300 gallons of oil.
~ Americans throw away 44 million newspapers everyday. That’s the same as dumping 500,000 trees into landfills each week.
~ Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100 watt bulb burning for 4 hours.
~ Each year Americans throw away 250,000,000 styrofoam cups. Styrofoam is not recyclable.
~ Americans use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum cans every year. There is no limit to the amount of times aluminum can be recycled.
~ Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the oceans kills as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.
~ Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that can be composted.
~ To produce each week’s Sunday newspaper, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
~ Each of us uses approximately one 100 foot tall Douglas Fir in paper and wood products per year.
~ Every minute of everyday, an average of 113,204 aluminum cans are recycled.
~ Recycling provides jobs and preserves our natural resources such as oil. It also keeps our water clean.
~ Letting your faucet run for 5 minutes uses as much energy as using a 60 watt lightbulb for 14 hours.
~ A typical family consumes 182 gallons of soda, 29 gallons of juice, 104 gallons of milk, and 26 gallons of bottled water a year….Don’t forget to recycle!
