Recycling
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Recycling one aluminum
can saves enough energy to power a television for four hours!
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We use over
80,000,000,000 aluminum pop cans every year.
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If all our newspaper
was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
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American throw away
25,000,000,000 Styrofoam coffee cups every year
Pollution and Waste
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Every year enough trash
is carried down the LA River to fill the Rosebowl.
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An aluminum can that is
thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now!
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Approximately 1 billion
trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
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Americans use 2,500,000
plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!
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Plastic bags and other
plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea
creatures every year!
Energy
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America is the number
one producer of greenhouse gasses in the world.
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The amount of wood and
paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for
20 years.
Consumption
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There are 143,781,202
cars in the United States (source: USDOT)
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The US has less
than five percent of the population, but makes up 25 percent of the
worlds fossil fuel consumption per year. (Source: World Watch
Institute)
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In 2003 there were more
cars in the US than licensed drivers.
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New homes in the US are
38% bigger now than they were in 1975. This is despite the size of
the average household falling (source: World Watch Institute).
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To produce each week's
Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
Population
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The number of people in
the US surpassed 300 million this year. This is nothing compared to
a world population over 6 billion.
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"Although 75% of our
trash can be recycled, the EPA set a national goal of 25% for 1992."
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"The first real
recycling program was introduced in New York City in the 1890s. The
city's first recycling plant was built in 1898."
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"By 1924, 83% of
American cities were separating some trash items to be reused."
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"Every year, each
American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that can
be composted."
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"The highest point in
Ohio is "Mount Rumpke," which is actually a mountain of trash at the
Rumpke sanitary landfill!"
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"The US population
discards each year 16,000,000,000 diapers, 1,600,000,000 pens,
2,000,000,000 razor blades, 220,000,000 car tires, and enough
aluminum to rebuild the US commercial air fleet four times over."
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"On average, it costs
$30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 to send it to the landfill, and
$65 to $75 to incinerate it."
It is time for all of us to make
better CHOICES… Are you with us?
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