Saving the Planet

Saving The Planet……..

Vol. 1 No. 1

January 2013

My Way!

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my first StP newsletter. The goal of this column is to help bring awareness to simple ways we can help preserve our environment for our and our children’s future.

My assumption was that everyone knew how easy it was, and was willing to do their part in saving the planet. I was wrong. Some people are simply not aware of how easy it can be to do your share.

Preserving our planet for future generations is a must. I hope I can share something meaningful. If just one person learns something, I have accomplished my goal.

Don’t expect anything technical, I am looking to learn through the process also so I’m starting out small.

I will post on this topic once a month. Hope you take time to read!

Common Recyclables that are normally

part of your community recycling program:

Paper –makes up nearly 30 percent of all wastes Americans throw away each year, more than any other material. Americans recycled about 63 percent of the paper they used in 2010.

Plastics -Americans generated 31 million tons of plastics in 2010, about 12 percent of the waste stream. Only eight percent of plastics were recycled in 2010. Some types of plastics are recycled much more than others. Most community recycling programs accept some, but not all, types of plastics. Look for products made from recycled plastic materials.

Glass – especially glass food and beverage containers, can be recycled over and over again. Americans generated 11.5 million tons of glass in 2010, about 27 percent of which was recovered for recycling.

Uncommon Recyclables that are not always part of your community recycling program:

Batteries – Some batteries contain heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel; therefore, many communities do not allow them to be thrown away with your regular trash. Recycling is always the best option for disposing of used batteries.

– Lead-Acid Car Batteries can be returned to almost any store that sells car batteries. The lead and plastics from the batteries can then be recycled and used to manufacture new products. About 96 percent of lead-acid car batteries are recycled.

– Dry-Cell Batteries are used in a variety of electronics and include alkaline and carbon zinc (9-volt, D, C, AA, AAA), mercuric-oxide (button, some cylindrical and rectangular), silver-oxide and zinc-air (button), and lithium (9-volt, C, AA, coin, button, rechargeable) batteries. Look for in-store recycling bins or community collection events to dispose of these batteries.

Oil -Never dump your used motor oil down the drain — the used oil from one oil change can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water. By recycling your used oil you not only help keep our water supply clean, but help reduce American dependence on foreign oil. It takes 42 gallons of crude oil, but only one gallon of used oil, to produce 2.5 quarts of new motor oil.

Did You Know?

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a light bulb that’s earned the ENERGY STAR, we would save enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year, save about $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to those from about 800,000 cars.

For information on recycling in your area

http://search.earth911.com/ or http://1800recycling.com/