What is recycling and how can I help?
Recycling is something you can do every day! Once you've finished eating lunch, take a look at the packaging that could be recycled.The plastic bag for your sandwich, an empty soda or juice box container, even the clean paper bag in which your lunch was packed may all be recycled instead of going into the trash can.
But what exactly does recycling do?
Recycling takes all of these reusable materials, such as plastics, metals, and paper and turns them into new products! Your old notebooks could become your textbooks text year and those soda cans could become part of a new car!
It takes about 17 trees to make 1 ton of paper. Which is A LOT of paper, 2,000 pounds! When we recycle our paper, we save trees from being cut down.
When we put plastic containers in our trash, they go to the landfill, where it takes 700 years to break down. Recycling plastics gives this tough material a new life outside the landfill.
When we recycle our cans, it takes 96% less energy to make new cans.
When we recycle our cans, we are making sure we have plenty of energy to turn on the lights and watch TV.