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| See also: |
| What's Recycled at USCA? |
| Recycling Containers & Locations |
| Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) |
| Recycling News |
| Recycling Facts |
Recycling Facts
- Recycling one tin can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours!
- Recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100 watt bulb for 4 hours.
- One 20 year old tree makes 785 paper bags.
- Packaging accounts for more than 30 percent of your garbage!
- For $11.00 spent on groceries, $1.00 is paying for packaging.
- 11% of America's garbage is food waste. 9% is compostable!
- Recycling one ton of paper saves three cubic YARDS of landfill space.
- Recycling aluminum can reduce energy use by 95% with similar reductions in water and air pollution.
- Producing recycled paper takes half the energy and creates half the air and water pollution than producing virgin paper (directly from trees).
- 40% of all U.S. municipal solid waste consists of paper and paperboard products
- Every ton of recycled paper requires 7,000 fewer gallons of water to manufacture than virgin paper
- The estimated 272 billion aluminum cans reclaimed during the 1980s saved 2 billion feet of landfill space
- newsprint 34%
- plastic 88%
- glass 5%
- aluminum 95%
- cardboard 24%
For each ton of paper you recycle, you save:
- 17 trees
- 64 gallons of oil
- 42 gallons of gasoline
- 4210 KWH
- 7000 gallons of water
- 3.5 cubic yards of landfill space
Paper Recycling in South Carolina for Fiscal Year 1999 (July 1 - June 30)
- Paper represented about 40% of South Carolina’s total waste.
- More than 1.7 million tons of paper was collected for recycling.
- More than 289,000 tons was cardboard.
Sources: South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Concerns, Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County, and Miller Recycling Corporation.
