Recyclemania is a currently running national competition with 514 colleges and universities participating, including UCSB. Its goal is to increase awareness and participation in diverting ever more materials from the landfills and using them as raw materials for more. This saves energy, prevents pollution, and decreases our reliance on limited resources.
From the Environmental Protection Agency’s report “Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States” for 2006, here are some interesting facts and figures:
About a third of all waste generated was recycled in 2006; in 1960 it was 5.6 percent.
Close to a third of all municipal waste generated was made up of containers and packaging.
About a third of our garbage was paper-and half of that was recovered through recycling.
Twelve percent of all the waste was plastic-and less than 7 percent of that was recycled.
The amount of emissions reduced as a result of our recycling was the equivalent of removing nearly 40 million cars from the road.
And even if the market for buying recycling is not good now, it will be in the future … because it is essential! GO RECYCLERS!