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Friday, December 7, 2012

Garbage and Recycling



By: Patrick Prince

Garbage and recycling (how to cut down on garbage and use recycling)


Facts
-Each year, the typical American family throws out 2,460 pounds of paper, 540 pounds of metals, 480 pounds of glass and 480 pounds of food scraps.

-80 percent of what is thrown away gets put into landfills, which makes it of no use to anyone but the earth, who really doesn’t want it. The other 20% is split in 2; 10% gets recycled and 10% gets incinerated. 10% is recycled?

-Americans dump 16 tons of sewage into their waters — every minute of every day
Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam coffee cups every year, and 2.5 million plastic beverage bottles every hour.
-Americans throw away about 40 billion soft drink cans and bottles every year. Placed end to end, they would reach to the moon and back nearly 20 times.
-Eighty-four percent of a typical household’s waste — including food scraps, yard waste, paper, cardboard, cans, and bottles — can be recycled. Using recycled paper for one print run of the Sunday edition of The New York Times would save 75,000 trees.We all as people take things for granted, if you reach how to destitute the things that you don’t want or need you can simply ask your local donation centers of they can take instead of throwing it away.


Steps to make happen 
-Make a commitment to recycling as much as you can while starting in your own home and Setting up your own personal recycling system that works best for your home by Know what can be recycled and Knowing what cannot be recycled

List of recyclable materials/ and how it is recycled.
Aluminum Cans
Steel Cans (soup cans, veggie cans, coffee cans, etc. and you don't even need to remove the labels)
Newspaper (OK, so I'm not going to insult you with a description for this one
Magazines and slick inserts (after you are finished with that People magazine and all those catalogs and Wal-mart ads that arrive in the mail, they can be recycled)
Corrugated Cardboard (shipping and packaging boxes, usually identifiable by an squiggly layer of paper sandwiched between sheets. Used pizza boxes are often NOT accepted)
Paper and Paperboard (office paper, notebook paper, cereal boxes, non-Styrofoam egg cartons, some pre-packaged food boxes. Some paper items like paper milk cartons and drink boxes are lined with wax or plastic and are often not accepted)
Plastics (milk jugs, shampoo bottles, detergent bottles, vitamin bottles, plastic soda and water containers etc. Most centers will only accept those plastics labeled with the PETE 1 and HDPE 2 symbols. These can generally be found molded into the bottom of the containers. If you can't identify the type of plastic, don't include it. Most facilities also require that you remove the cap since it is usually made of a different type of plastic. Some facilities will accept additional plastics, so if you are so inclined, check with you’re local recycling center.)
Glass (beer bottles, wine bottles, pickle jars, jelly jars, etc. Occasionally a center will accept only certain "colors" of glass. Light bulbs, Pyrex, ceramics, and mirrors are NEVER accepted. Glass is becoming less accepted because of the potential of worker injuries due to broken glass.)

The problem people have is not being educated on the problem, and once it's brought to there attention they are aware.

Sources:

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