Recycling

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: "Before You Bin It, Think What's In It!" Try to come