10 Simple Steps to Make Every Day Earth Day

• There are more than 9,000 curbside recycling programs and 12,000 recyclable drop-off centers nationwide.
• Each of us generates on average 4.4 pounds of waste per day, per person.
• In a decade, it is projected that Americans will throw away over 1 million tons of aluminum cans and foil, more than 11 million tons of glass bottles and jars, over 4.5 million tons of office paper, and nearly 10 million tons of newspaper. Almost all of this material could be recycled.
• If every household in the United States reused a paper grocery bag for one shopping trip, approximately 60,000 trees would be saved.
• Recycling a 4-foot stack of newspapers saves the equivalent of one 40-foot fir tree.
• Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.
• Making cans from recycled aluminum saves 95 percent of the energy required to produce cans from virgin material.
• Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire commercial airline fleet every three months.
• In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. This means that each adult will leave a legacy of 90,000 pounds of trash for his or her children.
• Recycling all of your home's waste newsprint, cardboard, glass, and metal can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 850 pounds a year.
• One tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year.

*According to the University of Colorado Recycling Services in Boulder and the Environmental Protection Agency