13 Fun Facts About Recycling Everyone Should Know

Reduce, reuse, recycle… we know what it is, but we often don’t know how important it is to follow this principle. That’s why we’re here to provide you with these fun facts about recycling!

Learning how much of a difference recycling truly makes can be inspiring and uplifting. It will make you feel better about doing something good for the world.

Why is recycling important? Because we are all residents of the same planet, and the more we help to promote sustainable product packaging, the more we can feel good about our efforts.

These fun facts about recycling are sure to inspire you to change the way you think about waste. Read them and get motivated!

 

1. Americans Have so Much Recycling Potential

Did you know that the average American generates about 4 pounds of waste per day, and we only recycle about 30% of all recyclable materials we use?

If more of us got involved in recycling instead of throwing everything away, we would be able to cut back on so much pollution, waste, and environmental damage on the planet.

 

2. Glass Has an Endless Timeline

Glass can be recycled over and over again indefinitely. It never loses its purity or its composure, which makes it the perfect material to continue recycling and producing.

Some packaging products degrade over time, and the more they are used the more their composure breaks down. But glass doesn’t lose its shape or composure and makes the perfect sustainable packaging product.

 

3. Recycling a Pound of Steel Saves Enough Energy to Run a Light Bulb for a Whole Day

In the United States, you can heat 18,000,000 homes with the amount of steel that gets recycled every year. It is also more economically efficient to recycle as much steel as possible instead of producing new materials every time.

Most of the steel you buy now has about 20% recycled content already included.

You can place your steel cans, tins, and containers in your recycling bin for curbside pickup. For appliances and larger steel items, contact your local recycling depot for options.

 

4. You Can Recycle Styrofoam

Styrofoam is one of those things that we sometimes aren’t sure about when it comes to recycling. However, you definitely can- and absolutely should- recycle styrofoam.

All of those take-out containers that end up in your garbage can are fine to be recycled. Styrofoam coffee cups are another major source of garbage that we can recycle instead- every year, we throw away 25,000,000,000 of these cups.

 

5. The Energy Saved From Recycling One Glass Bottle Can Power a 100-watt Light Bulb for up to 4 Hours

You could also power an 11-watt light bulb for up to 12 hours and a television for 20 minutes.

Now, think about how much energy that could save if every person in the country recycled just one bottle a day!

 

6. An Aluminum Can Stays in That Form for 500 Years

When you throw a can in the garbage, it won’t break down, and will stay in its can shape for 500 years. That means it will never decompose, at least within our lifetime, and it will always remain a piece of garbage in a landfill.

Instead of letting your cans sit in a landfill for 500 years, recycle them so they can be reused.

 

7. Every Year, Enough Glass is Thrown in the Garbage to Pile as High as a Skyscraper

Many of us are guilty of throwing away glass items in with our garbage, whether it’s because we don’t feel like making the extra effort or because we don’t have a recycling bin. However, recycling glass makes a huge difference, especially when we all do it.

In 2009, people in the United States threw out enough glass bottles to stretch transport trucks all the way from Los Angeles to New York City- and back again. That’s a lot of glass that could have gone toward making new products.

 

8. Substituting Recycled Glass for Half of the Amount of Glass Made From Raw Materials Can Reduce Pollution by up to 80%

When glass is recycled, it saves on the cultivation, collection, and production of raw materials.

Those materials are collected using machinery that causes pollution, and the process of making glass also causes pollution.

Therefore, if we can cut back on that process, we also cut back on waste and contaminants for the air. This is also key for those ecosystems that live in the areas from which we collect resources.

 

9. Foil From Candy Wrappers is Recyclable

Good news! You don’t have to kick your chocolate or candy habit to help the environment.

Many people don’t realize it, but the foil that your favorite candies come in, like Hershey’s Kisses, is fully recyclable. If we recycled all of those foil wrappers, we’d be saving a lot of waste.

 

10. Recycling One Run of a Newspaper Can Save 75,000 Trees

Weekly newspaper production uses the equivalent of about 500,000 trees. Many people don’t recycle their newspapers, but if they did, it would save over 250,000,000 trees every year.

And that’s just newspaper. Americans use tons of paper products that come from trees on a regular basis, and the majority of these products get thrown in the garbage.

Flyers, junk mail, letters, bills, and packaging from food items are all everyday paper-made things you could be recycling instead of throwing in the garbage.

 

11. Recycling Just One Aluminum Can Saves Enough Energy to Listen to a Whole Album on Your Ipod

That one can also saves enough energy to run a TV for up to 3 hours, which is the equivalent of about half a gallon of gasoline. In addition, recycling 100 cans can save enough energy to light a room for two full weeks.

Aluminum cans are one of the most common forms of beverage containers. Next time you buy a soda and listen to your ipod, think about that full album and throw it in the recycling bin.

 

12. One Ton of Recycled Plastic Can Save The Equivalent of 1,000-2,000 Gallons of Gasoline

Americans only recycle about 5% of the plastic products that we make.

When you cut back on the energy used to make plastic from raw materials, you can save enough pollution and energy to power multiple cars and homes. This goes for many different recycling materials, from glass to aluminum.

 

13. Recycled Paper Produces 70% Less Air Pollution Than Making it From Raw Materials

Pulp mills are a major cause for air pollution in the country, and the process to make paper from start to finish can release a lot of contaminants along the way that are harmful to surrounding ecosystems. Some pulp mills also use bleached pulp, which is even worse.

Modern pulp mills, that focus on using recycled paper as the majority of their materials, are more efficient for both water and air pollution. They drastically cut back on these damages.