Recycling In Oklahoma

Recycling to Oklahomans. Beyond resource conservation and managing solid waste, recycling creates jobs in Oklahoma. Recent studies show that there are more than 5,000 jobs in Oklahoma created from recycling related processes. These jobs represent over 300 million dollars in payroll each year. Recycling is good for the Earth and good for the economy of Oklahoma.

1. The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash every day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year. That's a lot. We can do better to cut that.

2. Americans produced enough trash to circle the Earth 24 times.

3. Over 75% of waste is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it. Let's do better.

4. We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste each year. If we composted that food, it would reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas as taking 2 million cars off the road.

5. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to listen to a full album on your iPod. Recycling 100 cans could light your bedroom for two whole weeks.

6. Recycling aluminum cans saves 95% of the energy used to make alum cans from new material. Pick up those alum cans and put a little cash in your pocket.

7. Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic bottles every hour. Stop purchasing them or reuse them for other creative things.

8. Over 87% of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs. Locate those sites.

9. Americans threw away almost 9 million tons of glass. That could fill enough tractor trailers to stretch from NYC to LA (and back!).

10. Paper recycling had increased over 89% since 1990.

11. If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save about 25 million trees each year. Trees provide filtered air and keeps our land in place.

DOS AND DON'TS

Those recycling icons at the bottom of bottles, cans, boxes, containers and other used goods tend to get a little confusing when it comes to what to recycle and how. Use the SheKnows.com Recycle Chart to determine what materials are safe to recycle and which should be trashed.

	RECYCLE	DO NOT RECYCLE
	aluminum cans tin, steel and bi-metal cans aerosol cans, empty and without pressure metal lids from jars, cans and bottles metal food trays	aluminum foil pie pans scrap metal foil juice bags coat hangers propane tanks
	plastic bottles (must remove caps, pumps, sprayers and lids milk containers drink bottles cleaning product and bleach bottles shampoo and bubble bath bottles	plastic bags plastic wrap plastic bottle tops plastic cups packing peanuts motor oil or pool chemical containers styrofoam clear food containers plastic egg boxes photos or film plastic toys medical supplies large plastic items pesticides and herbicides garden plastics and flower pots food storage and microwave containers solvent, paint and adhesive containers yogurt and margarine tubs IMPORTANT NOTE: Plastic bags get caught in the equipment used for recycling, so never recycle plastic bags. Instead, recycle bags at your local grocery stores.
	milk cartons juice containers newspaper and inserts magazines junk mail office paper telephone books and catalogs cardboard (flattened) cartonboard such as cereal boxes and 6-pack cartons brown paper bags egg cartons paperboard only shredded paper frozen food packaging  soft cover books	waxy cardboard or paper ice cream containers pizza boxes towel or tissue rolls rubber bands plastic wrap from newspapers photos remove plastic and foil from cereal boxes blue print paper cardboard saturated with poultry or meat juices packing material bar soap or detergent bottles
	glass food and beverage containers (don't need to remove labels) wine bottles clear, green or amber in color glass jars (don't need to remove labels) glass food and beverage containers (don't need to remove labels) clear, green or amber in color glass jars (don't need to remove labels)	window glass or mirrors incandescent or fluorescent bulbs dishware or ceramics