Fast Facts About Recycling

It is estimated that each Alabamian produces 9.9pounds of waste each day compared with the national average of 4.5 pounds. As of 2008, only 81 of 460 municipalities and 26 of 67 counties have recycling opportunities, and some of those are very limited in scope

In Alabama, there has been a goal to decrease waste into landfills by 25% since 1991,
yet our waste stream has increased by 57% in that time. 

If every US household replaced just 1 roll of virgin-fiber-toilet-paper with 100% recycled toilet paper, we could save 330,000 trees, 106,000,000 gallons of wastewater, and 25,000,000 pounds of Green House Gas. - from The Secret Life of Paper

Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour!

Recycling saves 95 percent of the energy required to make aluminum cans from virgin ore. In 1995, aluminum companies saved the equivalent of over 20.6 million barrels of oil -- or 12.3 billion kilowatt hours by recycling. This represents enough energy to supply the electrical needs of a city the size of Pittsburgh for about six years.

Americans toss out enough aluminum every 3 months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.

The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!

Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!

The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

Every month, we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable!

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.

Manufacturers produce more than 15 million tons of polystyrene (aka Styrofoam) each year, but we recycle less than 1% of it.

According to the EPA, yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 24 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream.