If we could all go even just a little beyond the blue bin, by reducing and resusing, it could make an enormous difference on the planet’s waste. The following is a short list of astonsihing recycling facts that are sure to nudge you in the direction of going green. It can’t be stressed enough how even the smallest efforts can make a huge difference, as you’ll see with some of the examples below.

METAL:

• If it takes you 45 seconds to read this recycling fact, then by the time you are done, there will have been over a quarter of a million aluminum cans produced before you were done.

• If you drink a can of beer after work and then tossed it in the recycling bin, that one (aluminum) can saves enough energy to watch television for 3 hours after dinner! Of course, you’d save even more energy if you went out for a walk or read a good (used!) book after dinner.

• There are over 80 billion soda cans used each year. Yes, that’s billion. Yes, that’s just soda! can you see the importance of recycling aluminum?

• The good thing about recycling aluminum is that it can be recycled an unlimited amount of times, and a recycled can, even 200 years from now, can still be a can. Yes, it can!

PAPER:

• If everyone read just their Sunday paper online for now on and there was no paper versions, 500,000 trees would be saved per week!

• If every single newspaper was recycled after we read them, we would be able to save 25 million trees per year!

• If you were to add up the amount of separate pieces of paper trash that each American throws away per year, it would be approximately 13,000 pieces of paper. A large percentage of this is packaging and junk mail.

• If we were to save all the wood and paper that we toss into the trash each year, the combined amount would be enough to heat 50 million homes for up to 20 years.

• If we were to lay out all the paper that American businesses generate in just one day, that paper would be enough to circle the Earth about 20 times.

PLASTIC AND STYROFOAM:

• The soda cans mentioned above were a pretty high number, right? Well, just in the USA alone, over 25 million beverage bottles made of plastic are thrown away every hour!

• Styrofoam coffee cups are being thrown away at an unbelievable amount of 25 billion per year. That number is the statistic for USA only.

• Plastic material being dumped into the ocean is responsible for killing u to a million sea creatures yearly.

GLASS:

• Using a similar example as the single aluminum can above, did you know that recycling just one glass bottle can run one of your 100 watt light bulbs for 3-4 hours.

• When a glass bottle is recycled, it is considerably cutting back on the air and water pollution that happens when creating the bottle from raw materials.

• If we were to wait for a glass bottle to decompose after throwing it away today, we would have to wait approximately 4000 years.

• There are approximately 41 billion glass containers manufactured every year.

• Like aluminum, glass can be reused an unlimted amount of times.

• Turn lights and computers off when they are not in use.

• Clean your refrigerator coils. Dust on the coils located in the back of a refrigerator makes it less efficient.

• Change or clean the filters in your air conditioners and heaters.

• Use sleep mode on your computers at home and at the office. Turn them off at night.

• Open the dishwasher and air-dry dishes instead of using the hot air dry cycle. Only run the machine with full loads.

• Dry your laundry on a clothesline.

• Wash clothes on warm or cold cycle, not hot.Wash only full loads.

• Turn down your hot water heater to 120F.

• Shorten showers by a few minutes to conserve hot water.

• Adjust thermostat when you leave the house (10F down in winter, 10F up in summer).

• Keep up with basic furnace maintenance. Have it professionally tuned and cleaned, and replace air filters regularly.

• Cook more efficiently. Cover pots, use a pressure cooker when appropriate, keep burners clean, cook several dishes at a time in the oven, and use a microwave to heat food.

• Keep drapes or blinds closed at night in winter and during the day in the summer to reduce heating and cooling needs.

• Install faucet aerators in sinks to reduce hot water use.

• Insulate the 4 ft of hot water pipes closest to hot water heater.

• Insulate all hot water pipes.

• Caulk and weatherstrip all your doors and windows.

• Have a professional seal your heating ducts to reduce the loss of heated air.

• Install a programmable thermostat.

• Replace appliances–dishwashers, refrigerators, washing machines–that are more 10 years old with an Energy Star model. The older models are less efficient than newer ones.

• Replace your old furnace with efficient Energy Star model.

• Install a solar hot water heater.

• Eat one less beef meal per week. It takes far more energy to produce meat for consumption than it does to raise a crop.

Well, scientists are not exactly sure. The Earth could be getting warmer on its own, but many of the world’s leading climate scientists think that things people do are helping to make the Earth warmer.

Greenhouse Effect, Climate Change, and Global Warming

The Greenhouse Effect: The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earth’s average temperature would be about 60ºF colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases. Scientists are sure about the greenhouse effect. They know that greenhouse gases make the Earth warmer by trapping energy in the atmosphere.

Climate Change: Climate is the long-term average of a region’s weather events lumped together. For example, it’s possible that a winter day in Buffalo, New York, could be sunny and mild, but the average weather – the climate – tells us that Buffalo’s winters will mainly be cold and include snow and rain. Climate change represents a change in these long-term weather patterns. They can become warmer or colder. Annual amounts of rainfall or snowfall can increase or decrease.

Global Warming: Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth’s temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. When scientists talk about the issue of climate change, their concern is about global warming caused by human activities.