Where Does Your Recycling Go?

Below is a short video for those of us who wonder where our recycling goes after it's picked up from the bins we set out on the curb every week. 

I found this video encouraging in that recycling does give cardboard, cans, plastic and glass new life.  Even more encouraging is that these products can have almost infinite reincarnations, keeping garbage out of the landfills.

Some recycling statistics:

• About one-third of an average dump is made up of packaging material!
• On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 to send it to the landfill, and $65 to $75 to incinerate it.
• Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!
• By recycling one plastic bottle not only saves anywhere from 100 to 1000 years in the landfill but also saves the environment from the emissions in producing new bottles as well as the oil used to produce that bottle.
• 
  Plastics in the U.S. are made primarily (70 percent) from domestic natural gas.

 

Read more about recycling on these fine sites (and be sure to recycle)!!  It's a great Eco-Step to a better tomorrow!

Recycling Facts

Benefits of Recycling

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Creative Uses for Yogurt Cups & Lids