During last Wednesday's class Matt asked, "What exactly does recycling have to do with 350 and lowering our atmospheric Co2 levels?" So I did some research when I got home and found some pretty interesting facts concerning recycling and carbon emissions.
- The U.S. recycles approximately 32 percent of its waste which saves an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases to removing 39,618 cars from the road.
- Increasing that recycling rate to just 35 percent would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 5.2 Million Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent.
- Net carbon emissions are four to five times lower when materials are produced from recycled steel, copper, glass, and paper. They are 40 times lower for aluminum.
- Just one person recycling their newspaper, magazines, plastic, glass, and metal for one year is enough to save 471 pounds of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere
Interested in how your own recycling efforts may affect greenhouse gas emissions? Check out the
EPA's Personal Emissions Calculator to see how many pounds of carbon dioxide your household emits per year.
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