 1 Feb 2002 @ 04:32, by Flemming Funch
Here are some interesting facts about recycling from the Resourceful Schools website.
Did
You Know...
Each
ton of recycled paper can save 17
trees, 380
gallons of oil,
three
cubic yards of landfill
space, 4,000
kilowatts of energy
and 7,000
gallons of water!
Americans
use more than 67
million tons of
paper per year, or about 580
pounds per person.
Paper products make
up the largest part (approximately 40
percent) of our
trash.
Making recycled paper
instead of new paper uses 64
percent less energy
and uses 58
percent less water.
Every day American
businesses generate enough paper to circle the earth 20
times !
Every day Americans
recover more than 2
million pounds
of paper! That's about 40
percent of the
paper we use.
Paper products use
up at least 35
percent of the
world's annual commercial wood harvest.
The highest
point in Ohio
is said to be "Mount Rumpke," which is a "mountain" made up
of trash -- at a sanitary landfill! Rumpke
is one of the nation's largest waste and recycling companies.
One tree can filter
up to 60
pounds of pollutants
from the air each year.
Each year, Americans
throw away 25
trillion Styrofoam
cups.
In Britain, over 9
million "nappies" or disposable diapers,
are used every day.
More than 1/3
of all fiber used
to make paper comes from recycled paper.
Every Sunday, Americans
waste 90 percent of recyclable newspapers. This wastes 500,000
trees!
A new landfill generally
costs
more than an old
one that has filled up. This is because it typically costs more to comply
with new environmental regulations, to buy the land, to construct the
landfill and to transport waste because new landfills generally are
farther away than older ones.
Every year more than
900
million trees
are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.
Only 1
percent of the world's water supply is usable; 97 percent is
in the ocean and 2 percent is frozen.
Why
Recycle - Five Good Reasons
- Recycling conserves our valuable natural resources.
- Recycling
saves energy.
- Recycling saves clean air and clean water.
- Recycling saves landfill space.
- Recycling can save money and create jobs.
How
Recycled Paper Is Made...
Waste
paper is collected, sorted, baled and transported to a paper recycling
plant. You
can help by sorting paper and keeping it dry and out of the sun (water
and sunlight make it harder to remove ink).
At the paper factory, used paper is mixed with water in a huge blender
called a "hydrapulper," which mixes the paper with water, pulling inks
away from the paper fibers and separating the fibers themselves. De-inking
chemicals are sometimes also added.
The pulp mixture passes through several different-sized screens, which
separate the paper fibers from paper clips, staples and other contaminants.
In most cases, the clean pulp is then mixed with some new wood pulp to
make the recycled paper stronger. Recycled paper fibers get shorter the
more often they are recycled. Most fibers can be recycled
The clean pulp is pressed into sheets, dried, finished and placed onto
rolls.
Recycling
Around the World
People
are making efforts all over the world to recycle and take better care
of our planet.
In Bristol, England, for example, they have a "Waste
Not" Festival, where you could guess how many aluminum cans had been
crushed into a brick, hear "Cycler the Robot" sing the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle
Rap and create art from items in a "Scrapstore."
A neighborhood recycling group there passed out leaflets and stickers
with a catchy earth-friendly slogan:Â "Before You Bin It, Think What's
In It!" Try to come up with your own catchy phrases to help you remember
to recycle.
Another group has installed picnic tables and seats made from recycled
plastics at a neighborhood park. They are also building a mosaic walkway
out of broken crockery and reclaimed tiles.
If you stop in at Ben & Jerry's
for an ice cream cone, you'll find a brochure called "Ben & Jerry's
Thoughts On Dioxin." It talks about how the ice cream containers
at Ben & Jerry's are made with unbleached paper. The paper bleaching
process can produce dioxin, a dangerous toxic chemical. Ben & Jerry's
has developed its new carton from unbleached brown (kraft) paperboard,
which can be made from recycled paper fibers.
Battery-maker Duracell
built its new international headquarters using materials from its own
waste. More than half of the building materials contained waste material
from the company's own manufacturing process. This included flooring made
from crushed glass and broken light bulbs, ceiling tiles made from recycled
newspapers and roofing from recycled aluminum.
Look on the bottom of your cereal box to see if it's made from recycled
paper. Kellogg's Froot Loops, for
instance, come in a box made from 100 percent recycled paperboard. You
can also get cereal, often for less money, in bags that have no box. Quaker
Oats, for example, sells its bagged
cereals for 35-40 percent below the price of boxed cereals.
 And
at Disney's new Animal
Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, there are brightly colored recycling
bins throughout the park (photo at right). Imagine what a difference that
is making among the waste typically generated by their millions of guests.
Asked about recycling efforts at the Disney parks, Joan Manangu, Executive
Offices at Walt Disney World Resort, writes:
"Regrettably, we
are unable to provide you with a date as to when our Recycling Program
began. However, our Company created a department called Environmental
Initiatives. This department was created in 1994 to identify environmental
initiatives around the Walt Disney World Resort.
"The first recyclable
bins were placed in the Magic Kingdom Park in 1996. The approximate
figures for the monthly total of items recycled in the month of March
1999 at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park are listed below.
- 28.9% of Class Waste
(trash, paper, & food waste) was recycled.
- 42.8% of Class III
(manure, yard waste, & construction waste) was recycled."
If you pay attention, you'll begin to notice recycling efforts all around
you!
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