Plastic Recycling  

Over 1.5 billion pounds of post-consumer plastic bottles were recycled during 1999, accounting for 22 percent (by weight) of all plastic bottles produced in the United States.

• Post-consumer plastic bottle recycling has increased dramatically over the last ten years, from 234 million pounds in 1989 to over 1.5 billion pounds in 1999.

• All plastic products accounted for 9.9% of Municipal Solid Waste generation by weight in 1997. Plastics were in fifth place behind Paper and Paperboard, Yard Trimmings, Food Waste, and Other Wastes.

• U.S. consumers discard enough glass every 2 weeks to have filled the 1,350 foot twin towers of New York's World Trade Center.

• These same consumers recycle approximately 1.25 million tons
  of glass annually.

• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to power a TV or a 100-watt light bulb for three hours.

• American consumers and industry throw away enough aluminum in a year to rebuild our entire airplane commercial fleet every three months.

• However, a record 56.85 billion aluminum beverage cans were recycled in the U.S. during 1991 — about 227 cans for every person in the nation.

• In 1997, the Recycling Division of the City of Houston Department of Solid Waste Management recycled 20 tons of aluminum cans.

•  Every year Americans use more than 67 million tons of paper or 580 pounds per person.

• Americans throw away enough office and writing paper annually to build a wall 12 feet high stretching from Los Angeles to New York.

• The production of a ton of paper requires 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water and more energy per ton than glass or steel.

• Americans dump 180 million tons of garbage annually — more than 40% of which is paper. High-grade printing, copying and writing paper is the largest single component in a landfill.

• Also, every day American businesses generate enough paper to circle the Earth 20 times.

• In addition, every year each American household receives an average of 1.5 tree's growth of bulk mail advertising — commonly known as "junk mail."

• Recycling 13,600 tons of paper accounts for the saving of 231,200 trees, 44,880 cubic yards of landfill space and 95,200,000 million gallons of water. This is the amount that in 1997, the Recycling Division of the City of Houston Department of Solid Waste Management recycled.

• Yard debris accounts for approximately 31 million tons
  of the nation's municipal solid waste.

• Throughout a year, at least 20% of solid waste by Texans comes from grass clippings, tree leaves and other landscape waste.

• The average American household generates 15 pounds of hazardous waste a year. Most of it goes into landfills, sewage treatment plants and septic tanks.

• An estimated 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste exists in the municipal waste stream right now.

• The average baby will use about 10,000 diapers before toilet training. An estimated 1 billion trees a year are required to produce disposable diapers.

• The U.S. Postal Service delivered approximately 63 billion pieces of third-class mail in 1990. An estimated 5 million trees were used to produce all of 1990s third-class mail. An estimated 10 billion pieces of third-class mail were discarded without being opened.