8 Easy Items to Recycle

Photo by: fferrer442

• Paper: Every ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 4000 kilowatts of energy and 7000 gallons of water. (*)

• Newspaper: Recycling a single run of The New York Times would save 75,000 trees. (*)

• Magazines, Catalogs, Phone Books: Phone books create 660,000 tons of waste per year. (*)

• Paperboard: This material is used in the packaging boxes of many food products and paperboard represents the largest market for recycled paper in the U.S.

• Aluminum Cans: Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a TV for 3 hours or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline. (*)

• Plastics: Plastics are made from petroleum, most of which is imported from other countries.  Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator. (*)

• Glass: Mining and transportation raw materials for glass produces about 385 pounds of waste for every ton of glass produced.  If recycled glass was substituted for half of the raw materials, the waste is cut by 80%. (*)

• Wire Hangers:  About 3.5 billion wire hangers go into the landfill every year.  That’s 195 million pounds of steel or equivalent to 60,000 cars.  Many dry cleaners will recycle wire hangers. (*)