FACTSHEET NO.1

The average American produces more than 1,000 pounds of trash a year! As a result, places to dispose waste are dwindling, and we are using up more and more of our natural resources. Along with our trash, we are also throwing away valuable energy.

Recycling solid waste can reduce the amount of trash we throw away and help us save energy and natural resources. The Louisiana Energy Extension Service (EES) factsheet explains the benefits of recycling, presents some startling statistics about the energy resources that we literally throw away as trash, and offers some practical tips on recycling.

BRIGHT IDEA

Most people use 60-watt incandescent light bulbs on their porches or backyards, but this is about the least energy and dollar efficient way to light.

Some suggestions:

  • Use a compact fluorescent bulb
  • Use a metal halide bulb
  • Use high-pressure sodium bulbs
  • Put outdoor lights on a timer or photocell control

You'll be amazed by the money you save and the extended duration of your outdoor light sources.

Why Should I Be Recycling?

What a Waste
  • The U.S. waste production per person is twice that of any other nation in the world.
  • This year, Americans will throw away about 180 million tons of waste, much of which is recyclable. For example, we'll throw away 1 million tons of aluminum cans and foil, more than 11 million tons of glass bottles and jars, more than 4.5 million tons of office paper, and nearly 10 million tons of newspaper.
  • We throw away enough glass bottles and jars to fill the 1,350-foot twin towers of New York's World Trade Center every two weeks.
  • Nationally, we throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet every three months.
  • We throw away enough iron and steel to continuously supply all the nation's automakers.
  • Each year, we throw away enough wood and paper to heat 5 million homes for 200 years.
  • Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour, only a small percentage of which are recycled.

Energy Savings

  • Twenty cans can be produced from recycled aluminum with the same amount of energy that it takes to manufacture a single can from raw materials.
  • Recycled aluminum products use 95 percent less energy than the same products made from raw materials.
  • Recycling 25 aluminum drink cans saves about 7.5 kilowatt hours of electricity, or enough energy to refrigerate those same drinks for two days.
  • Making paper from recycled products can take as much as 64 percent less energy than it would take to make paper from virgin pulp.
  • Recycled glass uses 35 percent less energy than that required to make glass from raw materials.

Savings of Natural Resources

  • One press run of the Sunday edition of the New York Times uses the paper produced by about 75,000 trees. In 1986, the nation's newspapers collectively required 13 million tons of newsprint.
  • For every ton of paper manufactured from recycled papers, 17 trees are saved and 3 cubic yards of landfill space are saved.
  • The production of recycled paper uses half the water of the production of virgin paper.
  • In addition to reducing the amount of mining necessary, using scrap iron and steel rather than raw ore to make steel means a 40 percent reduction in water use.

Saving Landfill Space

  • Almost 20 percent of landfill waste is made up of yard wastes, which can easily be composted or left on the ground.
  • Plastic takes 200 to 400 years to break down naturally. Buried in a landfill, even items that normally biodegrade quickly, such as paper, yard wastes and food, have been known to last as long as 50 years.

Reducing Pollution

  • The process of removing ink from scrap paper is cleaner and less toxic than the process required to make paper from virgin pulp. Production of recycled paper generates one-quarter the air pollution and two-thirds the water pollution of production of virgin paper.
  • Using scrap iron and steel rather than raw ore means an 86 percent reduction in air pollution and a 76 percent reduction in water pollution.

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