redeem, regenerate, rescue

In keeping up with environment week, here are some facts on recycling:

• The average American uses 300kg of paper each year – 100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all that paper was recycled.

• Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet their recycling rate is only 28%.

• Every month Americans throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper (think: Empire State Building), but all of these jars are recyclable!

• Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures a year! (Great Pacific Garbage Patch)

• Recycling one ton (about 917 kg) of paper saves 17 trees, two barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 2000 km), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for six months), 2.5 cubic metres of landfill space, and 30 kg of pollution.

• The 17 trees saved by recycling one ton of paper can absorb a total of 113 kg of carbon dioxide out of the air each year.

• If all of the newspapers in America were recycled, we could save about 250 million trees each year! Every year more than 900 million trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.

• Recycling one aluminium beverage can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours or a tv for 2 hours. Recycling 125 aluminium cans saves enough energy to power one home for 1 day.

• You can make 20 cans out of recycled steel with the same amount of energy it takes to make 1 new one.

• It takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill. Glass never wears out - it can be recycled forever. Recycling glass saves 25-32% of the energy and 9 gallons of fuel (oil) for every ton of glass recycled.

• Plastics require 100 to 400 years to break down in a landfill. Recycling 1 ton of plastic can save 1-2 thousand gallons of gas.

• Recycling all of your home's waste newsprint, cardboard, glass and metal can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 400 kg a year.

I know most of these facts are about America, but just because it’s not our country doesn’t mean we should ignore it. It’s their country, but our world.