Together With
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How Much Do YOU Throw Away?
Make a list of everything you have thrown
away today and everything you might
throw away later.
Make a list of everything you have recycled
today.
How much do you think the average
American throws away each day?
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Where Does Garbage Go?
Where do you think garbage goes
when it gets thrown out?
Where does recycled material end
up?
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Garbage
Americans throw away more garbage than any
other country in the world (per capita and
total). How much do you think the average
American throws away each day?
a.
b.
c.
d.
1/2 lb.
17 lbs.
4 lbs.
63 lbs.
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Litter, Land-Fills & Lost Energy
All that waste is causing Americans a lot of
problems. Litter, land-fill overflow, and excess
energy use are all problems caused by
America’s garbage production.
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Land-Fills
Because Americans produce so much garbage,
land-fills across the country are filling up fast!
On average, one land-fill fills up every:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Day
2 Weeks
10 Months
4 Years
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Litter
As bad as land-fills are for the environment, litter
is even worse!
Most litter ends up in the ocean after a long
journey. Litter collects in ocean currents called
“gyres” and form giant garbage patches…
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What’s An Ocean Garbage Patch?
To watch a short video which shows where massive
amounts of garbage is ending up, click here.
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How Long Does It Take An
Aluminum Can to Decompose?
a.
b.
c.
d.
3 Years
50-100 Years
200-500 years
1,000 years
It takes most aluminum cans between 200
and 500 years to decompose. This means
that if George Washington threw away a
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soda can, it would still be around today!
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Litter- Glass Bottles
How long does it take for a glass bottle to
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decompose naturally?
a.
b.
c.
d.
100 Years
1,000 Years
15,000 Years
Glass will never decompose
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Litter- Plastic Bottles
How long does it take for a plastic bottle to
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decompose naturally?
a.
b.
c.
d.
100 Years
1,000 Years
1,000,000 Years
Over 1,000,000 Years
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Litter & Landfills
Material
Time to Decompose
Amount thrown
away per day (US)
Aluminum
400 years
130,000,000 cans
Glass
Will never
decompose
36,000,000
bottles
Plastic
Over 1 million
years
60,000,000
bottles
1
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Energy Use
Garbage creation isn’t the only problem created
by throwing everything away.
Throwing bottles and cans away means we must
make new bottles and cans to replace old
ones, and this takes a lot of energy!
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Energy Use
Americans throw away around 2.5 million plastic
bottles an hour. Aside from causing a huge amount
of pollution, this is also a huge waste of energy. How
long do you think you could run a 60-watt light bulb
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with the energy saved from recycling a single bottle?
a.
b.
c.
d.
30 Minutes
3 Hours
10 Days
15 Seconds
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Energy Use
While the raw material that goes into making
glass – sand – is cheap, making new glass
still requires significant energy. How long do
you think you could run a computer using
the energy saved from recycling a single
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glass bottle?
a.
b.
c.
d.
3 Seconds
5 Hours
25 Minutes
7 Days
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Energy Use
Recycling aluminum takes about 95% less
energy than making new aluminum. How long
do you think you could power the average
American home using the energy saved from
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recycling one ton of aluminum?
a.
b.
c.
d.
3 Minutes
5 Hours
10 Years
8 Days
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Aluminum
Aluminum is the only packaging material that is
100% recyclable forever! Let’s take a closer
look…
To watch a video about aluminum, click here
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Now You Know
So now that you know how important recycling
is, get out there and do something about it!
One of the easiest things to do is to begin
recycling 100% of your own bottles and cans…
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Recycling With Clynk
To view a video about how CLYNK recycles, click the link
below
CLYNK-How it Works
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Sources for Factual Information
•
•
•
•
1- NDEP. "How Long Does Trash Last." NevadaRecycles.gov. Neveda
Division of Environmental Protection. Web. 12 Sept. 2011.
<http://nevadarecycles.gov>.
2- "Recycle Facts | Labels for Recycling | Single Sort Stream Comingled
Mixed Recycling." Recycle Across America | Recycling Labels Decals Signs
Stickers Compost Waste. Environmental Advancement Foundation. Web.
12 Sept. 2011. <http://www.recycleacrossamerica.org/recycling-fact.html>.
3- "Environmental Factoids | WasteWise | US EPA." US Environmental
Protection Agency. EPA, 28 July 2011. Web. 28 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.epa.gov/osw/partnerships/wastewise/wrr/factoid.htm>.
4-"Alcoa: News: Alcoa TV." Alcoa Inc. -- Primary Aluminum (aluminium) and
Fabricated Aluminum Products. ALCOA INC. Web. 12 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/news/alcoa_video.asp?videoid=129>.
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