16 good reasons for recycling

1. Recycling one tonne of paper saves 17 trees, 3 m³ of landfill space, over 300 litres oil, 26,498 litres of water and 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity - enough energy to power the average home for 5 months.
   
   
2. In the manufacturing process of recycled paper, 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution is generated, 58% less water and 64% less energy is required.
   
   
3. Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials.
   
   
4. Recycling 1 tonne of plastic can save up to 7,570 litres of fuel.
   
   
5. The average plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Worldwide, we waste 4 billion plastic bags annually.
   
   
6. For each kilogramme of waste that is composted instead of sent to landfill 2.5 kg of CO₂ emissions are saved.
   
   
7. Organic waste can also be used to make Biogas: Depending on the type of organic waste, between 20 and 800 m³ of biogas per tonne of waste can be produced. Each cubic metre of biogas contains the equivalent of 6 kWh of energy - enough energy to power a 100 W light bulb for 60 hours or a 2000 W hair dryer for 3 hours.
   
   
8. Biogas is typically composed of 60% Methane and 40% CO₂. It is similar to natural gas, which is composed of 99% Methane. The power of Methane as a greenhouse gas is more than 0 times  higher than CO₂. Combustion of biogas converts Methane into CO₂ and thus reduces the impact of global warming by  more than 20 times.
   
   
9. Glass never wears out - it can be recycled endlessly . Recycling a single bottle saves as much energy as a PC consumes in 25 minutes, a TV consumes in 20 mins and a washing machine in 10 mins. One tonne of recycled glass saves around 300 kg of CO₂ emissions.
   
   
10. Recycling a single aluminium can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours or a TV for 2 hours.
    
    
11. Recycling 125 aluminium cans saves enough energy to power the average home for a day.
    
    
12. Recycling steel cans saves up to 74% of the energy used to produce them from new raw materials.
    
    
13. Every tonne of steel recycled saves 1,134 kg of iron ore, 635 kg of coal and 54 kg of limestone.
    
    
14. 20 cans can be made out of recycled material with the same amount of energy it takes to make just one new one.
    
    
15. Landfill waste causes 2% of all man-made greenhouse gases. Waste dumps create Methane, a gas that is  more than 20 times more dangerous than CO₂.
    
    
16. Waste bins made from HDPE which do not contain any recycled material, cause around 16 kg of CO₂ emissions.

Source:
Life cycle assessment of a 240L HDPE bin produced by Environmental Solutions Europe (ESE) Group, July 2011
DTU Environment, Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark