Recycling: it's easy being green
Why recycle?
Recycling: A simple idea with monumental impact
- Reduces the need for new landfills.1
- Reduces pollution from mining and processing virgin minerals.2
- Saves 75% of the energy used to process raw minerals.3
- Reduces harmful greenhouse gas emissions.4
- Supplies industry with valuable recycled materials.5
- Stimulates development of new, green products.6
- Creates more jobs than landfilling or incineration.7
- Reduces the need to extract resources from the earth.
- Conserves resources for our children’s future.
1 The vast majority of landfilled waste can either be re-used, recycled or composted. Most residential waste consists of approximately 30% paper, 30% food scraps and garden trimmings and 20% metal and plastic. The rest is made up of wood, rubber, leather and textile and building materials. Source: Ontario Ministry of Environment.
2 When recycled iron is used instead of raw iron ore to make steel, mining wastes are reduced by 97%, air pollution effluents by 80% and water pollution by 76%. Source: US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.
3 Producing steel from recycled material saves 75% of the energy needed for steel made from virgin ore. Source: Steel Can Recycling Information Bureau.
4 The manufacture, distribution and use of products – as well as management of the resulting waste – all create greenhouse gas emissions. Waste prevention and recycling reduce greenhouse gases associated with these activities by reducing methane emissions, saving energy and increasing forest carbon sequestration. Source: The World Renewable Energy Association.
5 Empty glass bottles and jars can be recycled to make things like decorative paving and aggregate for asphalt or swimming pool filters, as well as new glass jars and bottles. Newspapers can be recycled into paperboard, new newsprint, insulation and animal bedding products. Steel cans that have contained anything from baked beans to fruit cocktail can be recycled to make new cars and bridges. Source: New Zealand Ministry of the Environment
6 A good example is plastic lumber, which was developed to utilize low-cost materials such as plastic grocery bags and wood chips or sawdust that were being recovered by the recycling industry. Plastic lumber is long lasting, requires limited upkeep and resists warping and decay.
7 Incinerating 10,000 tonnes of waste creates 1 job, landfilling the same amount creates 6 jobs, recycling the same amount creates 36 jobs. Source: Clean Nova Scotia.
