Many of the residents of Fillmore County are concerned with the environment and are dedicated recyclers. A great number of these people enjoy reading some of the facts and figures that are associated with recycling. This is the second article where I will share a variety of information that has crossed my desk in the past several years.
Fillmore County recycles only plastics numbered “1” and “2”, but you know that from numerous past articles. Your plastic shopping bags should be taken to a store that ships them to be recycled into new plastic products.
When plastic is recycled, 80% of the energy used in the process of making plastic from petroleum is saved.
Over half of the aluminum cans used in the United States end up in landfills. Nearly 80% of glass containers are discarded.
The fee for the disposal of a 25-cubic-foot freezer is $10 at the Resource Recovery Center here in Preston. The fee for the disposal of each appliance is $10.
Only 1% of plastic grocery bags are recycled world-wide. It is estimated that one trillion… twelve zeros…. are used each year.
Each year, Americans throw away twenty-five billion styrofoam cups.
Laid end to end, these would encircle the earth over 400 times.
Approximately one-fourth of the energy used by your water heater is used to keep the water hot, just in case you need it.
Twenty-eight aluminum cans weigh one pound. The thickness of an aluminum can is about the same thickness as a human hair. Twenty years ago, 19 aluminum cans weighed one pound.
Americans throw away 44,000,000 newspapers every day. That’s the same as dumping 500,000 trees into landfills each week.
One dollar out of every $11 Americans spend for food goes for packaging.
Americans throw away enough glass bottles and jars every two weeks to fill the 1,350 foot towers of the former World Trade Center.
Do not recycle diapers. We don’t want them. They are to be sent to landfill.
Making one ton of recycled paper uses only about 60% of the energy needed to make a ton of paper from trees.
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