Recycling Facts

Recycling Bins Trash Cardboard Compactor

1. To make one ton of paper using recycled fiber saves the following 17 trees, 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space, 360 gallons of water, 100 gallons of gasoline, 60 pounds of air pollutants, and 10,401 kilowatts of electricity. (source: United States Environmental Protection Agency)

2. Nearly 218,000 tons of shredded paper is used each year for animal bedding. (source: American Forest & Paper Association)

3. Recycling paper uses 60% less energy than manufacturing paper from virgin timber. (source: Environmental Protection Agency)

4. Recycling office waste paper saves valuable landfill space – 3 cubic yards for every ton of paper recycled – and extends the lives of our landfills. (source: National Office Paper Recycling Project, The United States Conference of Mayors)

5. Old newspapers are commonly used to make tissue and cardboard, while magazines are often recycled into newspaper. (source: Temperate Forest Foundation)

6. Each person in the United States consumes approximately 675 pounds of paper per year. (source: Temperate Forest Foundation)

7. The material that makes up the largest percentage of the waste stream is paper.

8. Businesses use the greatest amount. (source: Browning-Ferris Industries)

9. Every year, Americans throw away enough office and writing paper to build a wall 12-feet high, stretching from Los Angeles to New York City. (source: Browning-Ferris Industries)

10. If everyone in the United States recycled one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25 million trees every year. (source: Browning-Ferris Industries)

11. In the U.S., more than one third of the fiber used to make new paper products comes from recycled paper. (source: American Forest & Paper Association)