| GRN Recycle Talk FAQ Answer |
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 97 11:03 WET DST From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman) Subject: Re: Recycling equivalents (Patricia dal Cin)
April 9, 1997
Dear Patrizia dal Cin,
We call what you re looking for factoids . I think that I ve answered them here before. You might look for them here ( Search GRN ) under e.g. factoids).
Here are a few that I remember:
- 1 ton of paper recycled is the equivalent of 17 trees not used to make paper.
- 2.5 billion household batteries were used and discarded in the US in 1 year, contributing to background levels of mercury
Only in 1996 did battery recycling begin to be addressed on a large scale.
- Approximately 50% of our nation s paper, 8% of our steel, 75% of our glass, 40% of our aluminum, 30% of our plastics are used soleyly for packaging
- In the US, we throw out enough aluminum cans every 3 months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.
- Each American discarded 4.4 lbs/day in 1994, approximately 1 lb/day of which was recycled or composted.
Factoids, by the way, are completely out of context, and not terribly meaningful.
- Research Library for RCRA