Recyling

Another issue in our environment is recycling.  The average person generates 4.5 pounds of trash every day. That is 1.5 solid tons of waste thrown out every year.  75% of our solid waste is recyclable. 60% of what we throw away can be recycled.  Only 30% is actually recycled. That's crazy stuff!

In 2004, 55 billion aluminum cans  were either thrown out or they went to landfills.That's 9 billion more than 2000.  This was enough to fill the Empire State building twice!  Aluminum cans are mostly recycled, though they are counted for less than 1% of  our waste.  The item that we throw out most is paper. To be honest, paper can either be thrown out or recycled based on what we do with paper.   Paper is thrown out more than any recyclable item.  2000 pounds equals one ton of recyclable paper. 
 The amount of paper that we throw out each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes each year. If we recycle paper, we can save 3.5 cubic yards of landfill. It also saves 380 gallons of oil and 7,000 gallons of water.  We also eliminate 60 pounds of air pollutants.
Let's help the environment and recycle.

 Source: http://www.greenwaste.com/recycling-stats