The document emphasizes the critical importance of recycling various materials including paper, aluminum, plastic, steel, and glass, highlighting the significant energy and resource savings achieved through recycling. It provides statistics showing how recycling can conserve trees, oil, energy, and reduce pollution while stressing the environmental impact of waste and the benefits of composting food waste. Additionally, it offers resources for recycling information specific to the Denver metro area and encourages individuals to reduce waste and recycle to promote sustainability.

1. Why Should I care? About recycling… Presentation by: Maurina Paradise

2. Paper, Paperboard & Cardboard Each ton (2,000 pounds) of recycled paper can save: 17 trees 380 gallons of oil three cubic yards of landfill space 4000 kilowatts of energy 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution! One ton of paper is a lot, right?? one ream = 5 lbs.  One ton = 400 reams of paper (or 40 cases) My law firm office goes through that much paper in 2 months!!

3. Paper, Paperboard & Cardboard The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp. (http:// www.coworkforce.com/green/paperfacts.asp ) The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years. There is an estimated 100 million homes in America; we could potentially heat every American home for 10 years on what is thrown away in ONE year!

4. Aluminum Over 80,000,000,000 (That’s 80 BILLION) aluminum soda cans are used every year Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy that is the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline if 1 can = ½ gallon of gas  if all 80 billion cans are recycled  equals 40 billion gallons of gas per year Some estimates say that America consumes about 146 Billion gallons of gas per year Recycling aluminum cans saves just over 27% of Americas annual gas consumption!

5. Aluminum Once an aluminum can is recycled, it can be part of a new can within 3 months 1 The aluminum beverage can returns to the groceries shelf as a new, filled can in as little as 90 days after collection, re-melting, rolling, manufacturing and distribution. Consumers could purchase the same recycled aluminum can from a grocer's shelf every 13 weeks or four times a year. There is no limit to the amount of times an aluminum can be recycled. Aluminum can recycling saves 95% of the energy needed to make aluminum from bauxite ore. Energy savings in 1992 were enough to light a city the size of Pittsburgh for six years . (Can Manufacturers Institute 1993)

6. Plastic Plastics are made from petroleum - a limited nonrenewable resource. The bigger benefit regarding plastics arises from lack of use . Unlike paper & aluminum plastic is difficult to recycle and collected plastic does not often end up as a new bottle. Americans send about 38 billion water bottles a year to landfills. It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to make those bottles. According to the U.S. EPA, manufacturing new plastic from recycled plastic requires two-thirds of the energy used in virgin plastic manufacture.

7. Plastic One ton of recycled plastic saves 685 gallons of oil. PET (#1 plastic) when recycled can end up in your closet! It takes about five plastic bottles to make enough fiber filling for a ski coat and 25 recycled bottles to make a fleece coat . ( http://www.sks-bottle.com/Recycle_Plastic.html ) If you lined up all the polystyrene foam cups made in just one day, they would circle the earth. Styrofoam requires about 1.78 kilograms of petroleum feedstock to make a kilogram of polystyrene - and they are not recyclable.

8. Steel Reusing steel vs. new steel: 75% energy saved Every year enough energy is saved by recycling steel to supply Los Angeles with nearly a decade’s worth of electricity. 75% less air & water pollution We could build all the new cars with what we throw away A mericans use 100 million steel cans a day. We throw away enough steel every year to build all the new cars made in America.

9. Glass Glass recycling closes the loop quickly, returning to the shelf in 1 month! Using recycled glass stock uses 40% less energy uses “cullet,” or crushed glass; it melts at a lower temperature than virgin ingredients. Glass takes really long to break down in a land fill - A glass bottle can take up to one million years to breakdown. Recycled glass can be used in numerous areas, such as creating sports turf, manufacturing kitchen tiles and providing sand to depleted beaches.

10. Answer to a common question I am often asked “how does recycling aluminum cans truly relate to the saving of gas that I put in my car?” My answer is this: All energy comes from a common pool. Whether it is refined oil that is put in your car as gasoline or electricity that powers your computer there is a finite amount of energy available. If we save energy by recycling products, this equates to overall energy savings leading to less dependence on foreign oil, less dependence on carbon emitting polluting forms of energy. ---- So-called “global warming” is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make America energy independent, clean our air and water, improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don’t let them get away with it! – Chip Giller, Founder of Grist.org, where environmentally-minded people

11. Denver Metro Area Recycling Information Arapahoe: http://www.co.arapahoe.co.us/Community/Sanitation/refuseandrecycling.asp Boulder County: http://www.bouldercounty.org/recycling/recycle/recyhome.htm Denver County: http://www.denvergov.org//recapp/DenverRecyclesHome/tabid/425351/Default.aspx Douglas County: http://www.douglas.co.us/publicworks/operations/Trash_Transfer_and_Landfill.html Jefferson County: http:// www.co.jefferson.co.us/recycle.htm Most counties do not have “free” curbside pickup like Denver County; commercial pick-up available for fee (part of trash pick-up)

12. What about Composting? At home you can easily start up a compost to deal with much of your food waste Americans throw away about 10% of the food they buy at the supermarket. This results in dumping the equivalent of more than 21 million shopping bags full of food into landfills every year. Organic material makes up about 58 percent of what Denver residents send to the landfill every year. These items can be composted. Denver offers free classes and information on how to get started: http:// www.denvergov.org/recoth

13. Looking for More? Just a few book ideas

14. Mahalo! Questions? The Office Tree-Hugger Maurina e-mail: mparadise@fwlaw.com phone: 303.894.4444