Your Daily Facts – About Trash
About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 33%. (Environmental Protection Agency) By recycling more than 57,000 tons of steel cans, we reduce greenhouse gasses equivalent to taking more than 21,000 cars off the road each year. (WM) Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70%, water use by 50%, and air pollution by 20%. (Environmental Defense Fund) If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S.
