Environment

According to the EPA, the average person creates about 4.7 pounds of waste every day, but only about one-third of that is being recycled. The remainder is burned or makes its way into landfills.

While nearly 100 percent of lead acid batteries are recycled, only 35 percent of metals and 54 percent of paper products are finding their way into the recycling chain.

There are some significant benefits associated with recycling. The EPA reports that in 2007, recycling efforts saved the equivalent of 10.7 billion gallons of gasoline and prevented the release of carbon dioxide of approximately 35 million cars.

Each ton of mixed paper that is recycled can save the energy equivalent to 185 gallons of gasoline. Recycling one ton of aluminum cans conserves the equivalent of 1,665 gallons of gasoline.

To bring this down to personal level, recycling one aluminum beverage container can save enough energy to power a television for three hours. Once recycled, that container may come back to you as aluminum foil, another soda can or even your auto license plate. That same can, sent to a landfill, will take 80 to 100 years to decompose.