How Every Day Can Be ‘America Recycles Day’
If you visit on November 15, you can join us in celebrating America Recycles Day! Although we’ll be highlighting the benefits of recycling on Wednesday, throughout the year we’ve been trying to reduce, reuse and recycle more.
Did you know that more than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year? That’s not good for us or for our aquatic friends. Based on waste audits done by the Aquarium’s Green Team we estimate that by the end of this year we will have kept 2700 pounds of plastic out of landfills.
What can you do to minimize plastic and other non-biodegradable waste? First off, if you are not already recycling at home, then start. It’s not hard just go to your City’s website and find out what is accepted. (If you live in Cuyahoga County it is cuyahogarecycles.org.)
Making recycling simple and convenient for your family makes it more likely they’ll participate. Try designating a bin in each living area that generates waste (kitchen, laundry room and bathroom). Then, label the containers with signs that list what is acceptable so no one puts an item that doesn’t belong.
Don’t think what you do matters? Here are some great facts about the benefits of recycling that illustrate just how much you can impact the environment by making small changes:
- Recycling one ton of paper conserves 17 trees
- Recycling just 48 cans is the energy equivalent of conserving one gallon of gas
- Recycling plastic takes 88% less energy than making plastic from raw materials
- Aluminum cans made from recycled aluminum use only 8 BTUs, which is a 95% energy savings
– Charlotte Cotter, Guest Experience Senior Lead
