Some of us don’t think we need to recycle or refuse to be bothered with it. These days, it’s hard enough to find time to spend with our families so sorting waste is at the very bottom of the to-do-list. Besides, change in global temperature is natural and has occurred through history so why is it so important? But the truth is its more important than it has ever been. Did you know that the average person in the United States generates around 4.5 pounds of waste every single day? Now, multiply that by around 300 million and you may have a better understanding of why garbage has become a serious problem in this country. It has been scientifically proven that global warming as a consequence of human activity does contribute to climate change. The current global temperature is rising very quickly and it won’t be long before we won’t be able to live in certain parts of the world due to extreme weather. This is certainly not what we want for our children and grandchildren to endure.
Vocabulary.com explains the definition of recycling by breaking down the prefix; re-means again, and when you recycle something, you process it for another
cycle of use. The phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” gives you three ways to prevent waste. For example, when you recycle plastic bottles, they’re melted down and made into new bottles or even furniture or clothing.
For decades now we’ve been creating toxic waste and dumping them into the environment without realizing the damage it is causing to all living beings around us. With recycling, a substantial portion of our waste can be broken down into their original elements and be used to produce new materials while decreasing valuable space in our landfills, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, thereby reducing the harmful waste (pollution) discarded into the environment.
Did you know you can recycle most of your household waste? With a little creative thinking and commitment, you can start recycling household items you otherwise would have tossed.
MAIL – You can make the effort to go paperless or place a small recycle bin in a convenient location as a reminder to recycle junk mail.
PLASTIC CUPS & PLATES – You can place them in a recycle bin or shred them and put them underneath your mulch or around the base of your plants and flowers. Paper plates breakdown after several weeks, retain moisture and provide nutrients for your plants.
HOUSEHOLD BATTERIES – hold toxic materials that greatly contribute to pollution. Many libraries and post offices collect household batteries for recycling.
OLD TVs, COMPUTERS, ELECTRONICS & INK CARTRIDGES – contain harmful chemicals and ingredients. Best Buy will come and retrieve an old TV for a small cost or you can contact them for additional recycling information, or visit the websites mentioned in this article.
CFL BULBS – contain small amounts of mercury. You can dispose of these types of items at a hazardous waste facility or at any Home Depot or IKEA.
CARDBOARD – such as cereal boxes, pizza boxes, cracker boxes and packages alike. Most neighborhoods are delivering bins to use for recycling materials.
RECYCLING FUN FACTS:
(Fun facts collected from recycleacrossamerica.org
and unicycler.com)
Every year Americans fill enough garbage trucks to form a line that would stretch form the earth, halfway to the moon.
Each square mile of ocean is estimated to have 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.
PLASTIC:
Five plastic bottles (PET) recycled provides enough fiber to create one square foot of carpet or enough fiberfill to fill one ski jacket.
Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
Recycling one ton of plastic bottles saves the equivalent energy usage of a two person household for one year.
CANS:
Every three months, Americans throw enough aluminum in the landfills to build our nation’s entire commercial air fleet.
The average person has the opportunity to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime.
Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to power a TV for three hours.
It requires 95% less energy and water to recycle a can than it does to create a can from virgin materials.
PAPERS:
Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12 foot high wall from Seattle to NY (a new wall every year).
Recycling a stack of newspaper just 3 feet high saves one tree.
More than 37% of the fiber used to make new paper products in the U.S. comes from recycled sources.
GLASS:
Glass can be recycled and re-manufactured an infinite amount of times and never wear out.
Making glass from recycled material cuts related water pollution by 50%.
Recycling just one glass jar saves enough electricity to light an 11 watt CFL bulb for 20 hours.
More than 28 billion glass bottles and jars end up in landfills every year — that is the equivalent of filling up two Empire State Buildings every three weeks.
CARDBOARD:
Recycling cardboard only takes 75% of the energy needed to make new cardboard.
Recycling 1 ton of cardboard saves 46 gallons of oil.
Nearly 80% of all retailers and grocers recycle their cardboard.
ALUMINUM:
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours.
If all the aluminum cans Americans threw away in one month were stacked on top of each other, they would reach to the moon.
Aluminum cans are able to be recycled using less than 5% of the energy used to make the original product.
Recycling a ton of aluminum saves the equivalent in energy of 2,350 gallons of gas, enough to power the average car for more than 64,000 miles.
HOW CAN I GET STARTED?
First you must pledge to make a conscious decision to engage in a more sustainable, safe and responsible lifestyle. Next, ask yourself a simple question before throwing something away; can this be recycled –
reduced or reused? Third, start with you first then commit to getting a friend, family member and everyone in your household to join in. Explain to the children how their contributions help to preserve the planet. Get their little minds involved now; it will be a part of their conscious living in the future. You can also incent them monetarily by making this a fun game that can earn them a seat at the movies and/or donating the money earned to a charity of their choice. Fourth, uncover locations in your area to recycle products and visit sites like 1800recycling.com or Earth911.com for a great list of recycling options. Now that you have a beginners list of what you can recycle, why wait, get started today!
So long for now. Live life and be happy.
