Recyclables For Everyone!

Among America’s cultural flaws is the general unwillingness to recycle. Did you know recycling isn’t just for the weirdo down the street? No, I tell you recycling is for everyone. Just watch this.

One for the money:

You benefit most directly from the money the person at the recycling place gives you for your old junk. Really, it’s worth your while. I was surprised to find out I could get about $15 a trip for 20-ounce and 2-liter plastic bottles. People who drink cans of soda or have trucks, vans or SUVs can get a lot more money per trip.

Industrial power:

Did you know that it takes 20 times more energy to make a new bottle or can than it does to recycle one? It’s true, especially for cans, you have to go out, find a spot with aluminum ore, set up the equipment, mine the ore, extract the aluminum, AND THEN make a can and fill it. A recycled can skips all the steps that would come before making the can.

TAKE THAT, OPEC!

Did you know you need oil to make plastic? Not kidding, and you know who we get that oil from? You guessed it! And why pay OPEC for the oil to make new plastic when you can recycle the plastic bottles you’ve already used. You don’t need the oil to recycle a bottle.

Tree-hugger’s paradise:

To get paper, you need to cut down a tree. To get aluminum, you first need to clear the area of trees, plants, and the like. To get plastic, you drill the oil and risk a spill. All of these are bad for the environment. You can help prevent needless destruction of the environment by recycling.

Uncle Sam wants you to recycle:

For every can or bottle you produce from non-recycled material, America loses a little bit of money to the rest of the world. You wouldn’t want to bring the United States to the same fate the Soviet Union suffered, would you? Then keep the money in America and recycle the stuff that can be recycled.

What a dump:

The more you throw out, the faster trash piles up in the dump and the faster the dump has to expand. On the other hand, the more you recycle, the nicer your area’s going to stay. So unless you want to be living across the street from a trash heap soon, it would be a good idea to recycle what you can.