You might be thinking,
"Can recycling my family's junk mail really make a difference?" Well, the answer is YES.
Every little bit of recycling helps, but recycling junk mail is really important because of the amount of resources junk mail uses and the amount of waste it creates.
Junk mail:
- Weighs in at an average of 41 pounds per adult each year
- Creates four million tons of needless waste a year
- Costs millions of dollars in dumping fees each year
- Fills three percent of America's landfills
- Destroys 62 million trees a year
- Creates 28 billion gallons of waste water per year
- Is unopened, unread and trashed 44 percent of the time
When junk mail is recycled, it's turned into new paper products (click here to see how). That means less water is wasted, fewer trees have to be cut down for paper and less room is needed in the landfills.
Now imagine if all kids helped their families recycle their junk mail. Just think of the difference we could make!
|
