This waste counter tells a very sad story. It shows the number of beverage cans and bottles that have been landfilled, littered and incinerated in the U.S. so far this year.
Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA on recycling and water
At 3 minutes and 54 seconds into this piece, during an appearance on the Dr. Oz show, Ms. Jackson explains why recycling is so important. It is well worth a listen.
Bottle and can wasting and littering has more than doubled since 1990, from 71 billion units in 1990 to over 141 billion units in 2006. It’s still true that only one in three beverage containers are recycled in the U.S. each year. Of the containers that are recycled, nearly half of them (48%) come for the 11 states that have container deposit laws. The Institute will be updating the 2006 report soon. From the Container Recycling Institute.
The iWARM widget displays energy-saving benefits of recycling. This is the widget-version of the iWARM, which helps consumers understand the energy saved by recycling small quantities of common household products, rather than landfilling them. The energy savings are translated into the equivalent amount of electricity, estimating how long that amount of electricity will operate a variety of household appliances.
The energy calculations are based on the Waste Reduction Model (WARM), which was created to help solid waste planners and organizations track greenhouse gas emissions reductions from several different waste management practices. For information on the data and methodologies behind the calculations, please see the model documentation. General information about other EPA widgets. |
Regarding Recycling and Climate Change: In one year alone, if Americans were to recycle 85 percent of all the aluminum, steel, PET and HDPE plastic, and glass beverage bottles sold, [it would be] equivalent to taking an additional 2.3 million cars off the road. From an energy perspective, recycling more beverage containers would save the energy equivalent contained in nearly 2 billion gallons of gasoline. Compare that to the wildly popular “Cash for Clunkers” program, enacted in 2009, which only saved about 198 million gallons of gasoline a year, at a cost to the American taxpayers of $3 billion. In other words, a national container deposit law could have ten times the energy-savings impact of the Cash for Clunkers program, and uses no taxpayer money at all.
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
from World Watch Institute, December 1998
Laid end-to-end, the 50.7 billion cans wasted in 2001 would encircle the Earth 153 times.
Between 1990 and 2000, Americans wasted 7.1 million tons of cans: enough to manufacture 316,000 Boeing 737 airplanes.
from Container Recycling Institute, Jennifer Gitlitz, "Trashed Cans: The Global Environmental Impacts of Aluminum Can Wasting in America," 2002
Between 1990 and 2000, Americans wasted 7.1 million tons of cans: enough to manufacture 316,000 Boeing 737 airplanes.
from Container Recycling Institute, Jennifer Gitlitz, "Trashed Cans: The Global Environmental Impacts of Aluminum Can Wasting in America," 2002
It takes approximately one million years for a glass bottle to break down at the landfill.
Environmental Protection Agency, 2002
2001 recovery rates for glass in other countries: Austria: 83 percent, Sweden: 84 percent, Germany: 87 percent, Belgium and Norway: 88 percent, Finland: 91 percent, and Switzerland: 92 percent.
European Glass Container Federation (FEVE), February 2003
US glass recovery rate for 2000 was just more than 26 percent.
Environmental Protection Agency, "Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2000 Facts and Figures," 2002
Used glass or "cullet" melts at a lower temperature than raw materials, reducing the demand for energy and lowering production costs.
Clean Washington Center, "Saving Energy with Cullet and Preheating," November 1996
The energy saved from recycling one wine bottle will operate a 100-watt light bulb for three hours.
Calculation, courtesy of Robert Kirby, manager for R & D, Sandhill Industries, June 2003
Environmental Protection Agency, 2002
2001 recovery rates for glass in other countries: Austria: 83 percent, Sweden: 84 percent, Germany: 87 percent, Belgium and Norway: 88 percent, Finland: 91 percent, and Switzerland: 92 percent.
European Glass Container Federation (FEVE), February 2003
US glass recovery rate for 2000 was just more than 26 percent.
Environmental Protection Agency, "Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2000 Facts and Figures," 2002
Used glass or "cullet" melts at a lower temperature than raw materials, reducing the demand for energy and lowering production costs.
Clean Washington Center, "Saving Energy with Cullet and Preheating," November 1996
The energy saved from recycling one wine bottle will operate a 100-watt light bulb for three hours.
Calculation, courtesy of Robert Kirby, manager for R & D, Sandhill Industries, June 2003
If all the cars on U.S. roads had properly inflated tires, it would save nearly 2 billion gallons of gasoline a year.
84% of a typical household's waste - including food scraps, yard waste, paper, cardboard, cans and bottles - can be recycled, but all too often isn't.
