Department of Public Works
Fun Recycling Facts
Cans (Aluminum)
- Every three months, Americans landfill enough aluminum to rebuild the entire commercial air fleet.
- The average person has the opportunity to recycle more than 250,000 cans in a lifetime.
- Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television for three hours.
Newspaper (Paper)
- Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12-foot high wall of paper that would stretch from New York to Seattle.
- Making paper from recycled paper reduces contributions to air pollution by 95 percent.
- Recycling a stack of newspapers just three feet high saves one tree.
- Recycling eight newspapers each month can save eight trees per year.
Jars (Glass)
- Glass can be recycled an infinite number of times.
- Making glass products from recycled glass cuts related water pollution by fifty percent.
- Recycling one glass jar saves enough electricity to light a conventional sixty-watt bulb for four hours or an eleven-watt CFL light bulb for 20 hours.
- Recycling ten glass bottles per week can save enough energy to power a conventional light bulb for forty hours or a CFL bulb for 200 hours.
Bottles & Jugs (Plastic)
- The United States recycles 3.3 billion pounds of post-consumer plastics annually.
- The plastic recycling industry provides jobs for more than 52,000 American workers.
- Five PET bottles (#1 plastic) yield enough fiber for one extra-large T-shirt, one square foot of carpet, or enough fiber to fill one ski jacket.
- Recycling twenty plastic bottles per week can generate enough fiber to make 208 T-shirts per year.
Revised August 9, 2010
