Thursday, September 13, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Why Promoting recycling is a good thing!
I was preparing a list of talking points for some elected officials on the benefits of recycling and thought it might benefit others as well. We are making the case to our elected officials in Illinois that this is a great time
to promote recycling because it creates JOBS and isn't as partisan as
other environmental issues.
This is a brief video of EPA director, Lisa Jackson saying her #1 goal for the country with respect to the environment is more recycling. It's not a great quality video but it's a good promo for zero waste efforts and helps make the case that zero waste/recycling as an environmental issue is not passé as some in the midwest have a tendency to believe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMyj_FoHLXY
This is a good zero waste infographic which is also in video form:
http://www.mapsofworld.com/poll/can-we-become-a-zero-waste-planet-infographic.html#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0CNkYXm_3A
From the USEPA: (http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/recycle.htm)
Benefits of Recycling
• Recycling protects and expands US manufacturing jobs and increases US competitiveness.
• Recycling reduces the need for landfilling and incineration.
• Recycling prevents pollution caused by the manufacturing of products from virgin materials.
• Recycling saves energy.
• Recycling decreases emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.
• Recycling conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals.
• Recycling helps sustain the environment for future generations.
• Recycling reduces our dependence on foreign oil and saves energy, preserves precious natural resources, creates less pollution and creates jobs.
JOBS and Economic benefit:
• Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates one job; landfilling 10,000 tons of waste creates six jobs; recycling 10,000 tons of waste creates 36 jobs. ( EPA, "Resource Conservation Challenge: Campaigning Against Waste," EPA 530-F-02-033, 2002)
• Numbers from EPA’s Recycling Economic Information (REI) study show that the U.S. is home to more than 56,000 recycling and reuse establishments that generate an annual payroll of nearly $37 billion and gross over $236 billion in annual receipts.
• The same study also indicates that beyond the 1.1 million people directly employed by recycling, there are an additional 1.4 million jobs with a $52 billion payroll in businesses that support the recycling and reuse industry.
• From a 2010 study done by the Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity:
(http://www.illinoisbiz.biz/dceo/Bureaus/Energy_Recycling/Recycling/REI.htm)
Recycling in Illinois in 2010 created:
• A total of 111,500 jobs;
• Payroll of $3.6 billion;
• $30.3 billion in additional gross receipts; and,
• Over $1 billion in state and local taxes
• For every job created by burning and burying waste, 25 recycling-based manufacturing jobs can be created from the same amount of waste.
• On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 to send it to the landfill, and $65 to $75 to incinerate it.
• Out of every $10 spent buying things, $1 (10%) goes for packaging that is thrown away. Packaging represents about 65% of household trash.
Energy Savings:
• In 2000, the national recycling rate of 30 percent saved the equivalent of more than five billion gallons of gasoline, reducing dependence on foreign oil by 114 million barrels.
(EPA, "Resource Conservation Challenge: Campaigning Against Waste," EPA 530-F-02-033, 2002)
• In 2000, recycling resulted in an annual energy savings equal to the amount of energy used in 6 million homes (over 660 trillion BTUs). In 2005, recycling was projected to save the amount of energy used in 9 million homes (900 trillion BTUs).
• According to the US EPA, energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours or a compact fluorescent bulb for 20 hours.
• EPA also says that recycling one aluminum 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. (EPA)
• According to the Steel Recycling Institute, steel recycling in the United States saves the energy equivalent to electrical power for about one-fifth of American households for one year. (EPA)
• Recycling aluminum cans in the United States in 1996 saved enough energy to power a city the size of Philadelphia for one year. (From World Watch Institute, December 1998)
• It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw materials. Making recycled steel saves 60%, recycled newspaper 40%, recycled plastics 70%, and recycled glass 40%. These savings far outweigh the energy created as by-products of incineration and landfilling.
• The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
• Because incinerators are inefficient at generating electricity from burning waste, and recycling and composting conserve three to five times more energy than is produced by incinerating waste, the amount of energy wasted in the U.S. by not recycling is equal to the output of 15 medium-sized power plants. (Clean Air Council)
Preservation of Resources:
• In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history. (U.S. EPA, 2009. Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead.)
• The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
• Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
• The U.S. buried or burned more than 166 million tons of resources—paper, plastic, metals, glass and organic materials—in landfills and incinerators in 2008. We recycled and composted only one-third of our discards. (U.S. EPA, 2009. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States, Detailed Tables and Figures for 2008.)
• It is estimated that currently 80 - 90% of all waste can be recycled.
• Each year the US population discards 16,000,000,000 diapers, 1,600,000,000 pens, 2,000,000,000 razor blades, 220,000,000 car tires, and enough aluminum to rebuild the US commercial air fleet four times over.
Pollution reduction:
• Recycling benefits the air and water by creating a net reduction in ten major categories of air pollutants and eight major categories of water pollutants.
• More than 2 million people globally die prematurely every year due to outdoor and indoor air pollution. (United Nations Environment Programme, 2007. Global Environment Outlook 4: Summary for Decision Makers.)
• According to the EPA, landfills are a leading source of man-made methane – a greenhouse gas that is 72 times more potent that CO2 – and waste incinerators release more climate pollution (per unit of electricity produced) than coal power plants. While landfill gas is a good fuel, most landfills are not efficiently collecting it. The EPA estimates 75% gas collection efficiency, but some landfills are as low as 9 percent. The 2006 IPCC report used an estimated recovery efficiency of just 20 percent.
• Also from EPA: Recycling bottles causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.
• It is estimated that over 1 million sea creatures die each year due the dumping of plastics in the sea (80% brought from land)
• The Great Pacific Garbage patch has an area of 6,79,540 square miles with a high degree of plastic concentration.
• A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
US and world waste generation and consumption:
• The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world's people generate 40% of the world's waste.
• The U.S. consumes over 30% of the world’s resources, producing 22% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and 40% of the world’s waste. The US and China combined produce 2/3 of the world's waste.
• Between 1970 and 1995, the U.S. represented about one-third of the world’s total material consumption. With less than 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. consumes 33% of paper, 25% of oil, 15% of coal, 17% of aluminum, and 15% of copper. (U.S. EPA, 2009. Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead.)
• Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! 80% of which are thrown away!
• On average, each one of us produces 4.4 pounds of solid waste each day. This adds up to almost a ton of trash per person, per year.
• Every year, Americans throw away enough paper and plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times. (Clean Air Council)
This is a brief video of EPA director, Lisa Jackson saying her #1 goal for the country with respect to the environment is more recycling. It's not a great quality video but it's a good promo for zero waste efforts and helps make the case that zero waste/recycling as an environmental issue is not passé as some in the midwest have a tendency to believe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMyj_FoHLXY
This is a good zero waste infographic which is also in video form:
http://www.mapsofworld.com/poll/can-we-become-a-zero-waste-planet-infographic.html#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0CNkYXm_3A
From the USEPA: (http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/recycle.htm)
Benefits of Recycling
• Recycling protects and expands US manufacturing jobs and increases US competitiveness.
• Recycling reduces the need for landfilling and incineration.
• Recycling prevents pollution caused by the manufacturing of products from virgin materials.
• Recycling saves energy.
• Recycling decreases emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.
• Recycling conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals.
• Recycling helps sustain the environment for future generations.
Here are some talking points/recycling facts on the benefits of recycling:
• Recycling reduces our dependence on foreign oil and saves energy, preserves precious natural resources, creates less pollution and creates jobs.
JOBS and Economic benefit:
• Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates one job; landfilling 10,000 tons of waste creates six jobs; recycling 10,000 tons of waste creates 36 jobs. ( EPA, "Resource Conservation Challenge: Campaigning Against Waste," EPA 530-F-02-033, 2002)
• Numbers from EPA’s Recycling Economic Information (REI) study show that the U.S. is home to more than 56,000 recycling and reuse establishments that generate an annual payroll of nearly $37 billion and gross over $236 billion in annual receipts.
• The same study also indicates that beyond the 1.1 million people directly employed by recycling, there are an additional 1.4 million jobs with a $52 billion payroll in businesses that support the recycling and reuse industry.
• From a 2010 study done by the Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity:
(http://www.illinoisbiz.biz/dceo/Bureaus/Energy_Recycling/Recycling/REI.htm)
Recycling in Illinois in 2010 created:
• A total of 111,500 jobs;
• Payroll of $3.6 billion;
• $30.3 billion in additional gross receipts; and,
• Over $1 billion in state and local taxes
• For every job created by burning and burying waste, 25 recycling-based manufacturing jobs can be created from the same amount of waste.
• On average, it costs $30 per ton to recycle trash, $50 to send it to the landfill, and $65 to $75 to incinerate it.
• Out of every $10 spent buying things, $1 (10%) goes for packaging that is thrown away. Packaging represents about 65% of household trash.
Energy Savings:
• In 2000, the national recycling rate of 30 percent saved the equivalent of more than five billion gallons of gasoline, reducing dependence on foreign oil by 114 million barrels.
(EPA, "Resource Conservation Challenge: Campaigning Against Waste," EPA 530-F-02-033, 2002)
• In 2000, recycling resulted in an annual energy savings equal to the amount of energy used in 6 million homes (over 660 trillion BTUs). In 2005, recycling was projected to save the amount of energy used in 9 million homes (900 trillion BTUs).
• According to the US EPA, energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours or a compact fluorescent bulb for 20 hours.
• EPA also says that recycling one aluminum 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. (EPA)
• According to the Steel Recycling Institute, steel recycling in the United States saves the energy equivalent to electrical power for about one-fifth of American households for one year. (EPA)
• Recycling aluminum cans in the United States in 1996 saved enough energy to power a city the size of Philadelphia for one year. (From World Watch Institute, December 1998)
• It takes 95% less energy to recycle aluminum than it does to make it from raw materials. Making recycled steel saves 60%, recycled newspaper 40%, recycled plastics 70%, and recycled glass 40%. These savings far outweigh the energy created as by-products of incineration and landfilling.
• The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
• Because incinerators are inefficient at generating electricity from burning waste, and recycling and composting conserve three to five times more energy than is produced by incinerating waste, the amount of energy wasted in the U.S. by not recycling is equal to the output of 15 medium-sized power plants. (Clean Air Council)
Preservation of Resources:
• In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history. (U.S. EPA, 2009. Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead.)
• The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
• Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
• The U.S. buried or burned more than 166 million tons of resources—paper, plastic, metals, glass and organic materials—in landfills and incinerators in 2008. We recycled and composted only one-third of our discards. (U.S. EPA, 2009. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States, Detailed Tables and Figures for 2008.)
• It is estimated that currently 80 - 90% of all waste can be recycled.
• Each year the US population discards 16,000,000,000 diapers, 1,600,000,000 pens, 2,000,000,000 razor blades, 220,000,000 car tires, and enough aluminum to rebuild the US commercial air fleet four times over.
Pollution reduction:
• Recycling benefits the air and water by creating a net reduction in ten major categories of air pollutants and eight major categories of water pollutants.
• More than 2 million people globally die prematurely every year due to outdoor and indoor air pollution. (United Nations Environment Programme, 2007. Global Environment Outlook 4: Summary for Decision Makers.)
• According to the EPA, landfills are a leading source of man-made methane – a greenhouse gas that is 72 times more potent that CO2 – and waste incinerators release more climate pollution (per unit of electricity produced) than coal power plants. While landfill gas is a good fuel, most landfills are not efficiently collecting it. The EPA estimates 75% gas collection efficiency, but some landfills are as low as 9 percent. The 2006 IPCC report used an estimated recovery efficiency of just 20 percent.
• Also from EPA: Recycling bottles causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.
• It is estimated that over 1 million sea creatures die each year due the dumping of plastics in the sea (80% brought from land)
• The Great Pacific Garbage patch has an area of 6,79,540 square miles with a high degree of plastic concentration.
• A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
US and world waste generation and consumption:
• The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world's people generate 40% of the world's waste.
• The U.S. consumes over 30% of the world’s resources, producing 22% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and 40% of the world’s waste. The US and China combined produce 2/3 of the world's waste.
• Between 1970 and 1995, the U.S. represented about one-third of the world’s total material consumption. With less than 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. consumes 33% of paper, 25% of oil, 15% of coal, 17% of aluminum, and 15% of copper. (U.S. EPA, 2009. Sustainable Materials Management: The Road Ahead.)
• Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! 80% of which are thrown away!
• On average, each one of us produces 4.4 pounds of solid waste each day. This adds up to almost a ton of trash per person, per year.
• Every year, Americans throw away enough paper and plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times. (Clean Air Council)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)