Plastic, glass, aluminum, paper, and steel

• We throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.

• Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas.

• We throw away enough glass bottles to fill the 1350 foot World Trade Towers every two weeks.

• Switzerland leads the world in the percentage of glass recycled with 89%. The U.S. is 5th at 32%.

• In America, 1,500 aluminum cans are recycled every second.

• Recycling an aluminum soda can saves 96% of the energy used to make a can from ore, and produces

95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution.

• It takes the energy equivalent to half a soda can of gasoline to produce one soda can from bauxite ore.

• We throw away enough aluminum cans to rebuild our commercial air fleet every three months, and enough

iron and steel to supply all our nation's auto makers every day.

• Throwing away one aluminum can wastes as much energy as if that can were 1/2 full of gasoline.

• In 1986 48.7% of all aluminum cans were being recycled. In 1990 that percentage increased to 63.6% and,

in 1996, 63.5% were being recycled.

• If you stacked all the refrigerators Americans buy in a single week, you'd have a tower more than 80 miles

high.

• In 1992 55% of all U.S. appliances were being recycled. In 1994 that increased to 70.2%, and in 1996

76.4% were being recycled.

• In 1996 steel cans, including food, paint and aerosol cans, were recycled at a rate of 58.2% and

automobiles were recycled at a rate of 97.9%. The overall steel recycling rate was about 65%.

• Paper takes up 40% of our landfills.

• The amount of paper recycled annually by the average American in 1995 was 301.8 lbs., increasing in

1996 to 329 lbs.

• In the United States an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. 4 million tons of

this is wrapping paper and shopping bags.

• Americans receive almost 4 million tons of junk mail every year. Most of it winds up in landfills.

• Recycling one ton of cardboard saves over 9 cubic yards of landfill space.

• The average American uses 650 pounds of paper a year.

• Each year we trash enough office paper to build a 12-foot wall from Los Angeles to New York City.

• One ton of paper from recycled pulp saves 17 trees, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 7000 gallons of water,

4200 kilowatt hours (enough to heat your home for half year), 390 gallons of oil, and prevents 60 pounds of

air pollutants.

• Producing recycled white paper creates 74% less air pollutants, 35% less water pollutants, and 75% less

process energy than producing paper from virgin fibers.

• Every ton of newspaper recycled saves 4100 kilowatt hours or enough energy to power a TV for 31 hours.

• Bell Atlantic sent more than 96 million recycled envelopes to New York customers in 1996. Half were made

from old telephone books.

Office \ Business Trivia

• Americans toss out enough paper & plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300

times.

• The average American office worker goes through around 500 disposable cups every year.

• Nearly 44 million American workers purchase or eat lunch out every weekday.

• Americans make nearly 400 billion photocopies a year - about 750,000 copies every minute of every day.

• U.S. fax machines sent 30 billion faxes in 1990.

• U.S. businesses now use about 21 million tons of paper every year. Thatʼs about 175 pounds of paper for

each American.

• It takes the energy equivalent to about 75,000 tons of coal a year just to power our nations fax machines.

• American businesses throw out 15 million toner cartridges every year; enough to stretch from New York to

Zurich.

Oil

• One quart of motor oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of water.

• Approximately 60% of Americans change their own oil. Due to the lack of convenient collection facilities,

these do-it-yourselfers simply dump the used motor oil into the environment. Over 200 million gallons of oil.

Or the equivalent of 5 oil tankers the size of the Exxon Valdez spilling their entire load, is tossed in the

garbage or poured down the sewer every year.

• One gallon of reprocessed oil can generate enough energy to meet the electricity needs of your home for

half a day.

• Just one properly drained oil filter holds about 1/2 cup of motor oil. This is enough oil to pollute 31,250

gallons of water.

• Over 500 million oil filters have to be disposed of each year.

• The plastic used in one toner cartridge contains about a half quart of oil.

• The world's largest waste oil processing plant is located in East Chicago IN. The facility is to recycle 75

million gallons per year of crankcase and industrial oil and 20 million gallons per year of oily wastewater.

• Out of a barrel of crude oil you can get 2.5 quarts of virgin motor oil, while it takes only a gallon of used

motor oil to get the same amount of high quality motor oil.

Tires

• There are approximately 11 million waste tires stockpiled statewide in Indiana.