I saw a post on Facebook today that REALLY excited me: Wicker Park and Bucktown are installing recycling bins on the street! I am headstrong about recycling and also an avid Diet Coke can drinker. I always find myself holding on to my Diet Coke cans until I can find somewhere to recycle them – I refuse to throw them in the trash. Now, I don’t have to! I hope these bins start to pop up more and more around the city. There are so many things we throw away that could very well be recycled! With these new receptacles, Chicago is maintaining it’s reputation for being the cleanest and greenest city in the United States!
And if you’re not a regular recycler, maybe some of these facts will change your mind:
- About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is only 28%.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours. In spite of this, Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every three months!
- The average American uses 650 pounds of paper each year – 100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all that paper was recycled.
- It takes a 15-year-old tree to produce 700 grocery bags.
- The average time taken by plastic bottles to decompose in a landfill is close to 700 years.
