Aluminum
Of all the recyclable items, an aluminum can is the easiest to make into a new one. It melts at a relatively low temperature and saves a great deal of mining.

Recycling one twelve ounce aluminum can saves an amount of energy equal to six ounces of gasoline, enough to power an efficient (40 MPG) car for two miles. In 1988, the aluminum cans that Americans recycled saved enough energy to power New York City's residential needs for six months. Compared to trashing it, recycling aluminum also cuts air pollution by 95%.

Glass
Recycling glass reduces air pollution by 20%, and water pollution by 50%, compared with trashing it. Every time you recycle a glass bottle that would have been trashed, you save enough energy to light a 100 watt bulb for four hours.

Although recycling glass costs jobs in the container production industry, it creates more jobs in the recycling industry. Michigan reports that creating a bottle bill (a system designed to promote recycling) led to a net increase of 4,500 new jobs. In New York a similar bill led to an increase of 5,000 full-time jobs.

Even better than recycling glass is reusing it. When we recycle glass, it often has to be trucked great distances to a factory where it can be melted for re-shaping. Because glass is heavy and dense, both the trucking and the melting require large amounts of energy.

Tin Cans
Recycling tin cans reduces related energy use by 74%, air pollution by 85%, solid waste by 95%, and water pollution by 76% compared to wasting them. That sounds great, doesn't it? But we only recycle 5% of our tin cans! Let's change that. If your recycling center takes them, terrific. If not, maybe they need a little convincing from you.

Recycled Plastic
In the last few decades, plastic use in North America has risen dramatically. There are good reasons why it's so popular — it's lightweight, waterproof, strong and break-resistant. But plastics are made from petroleum and most don't decompose for a long time.

Humans dump more than 45,000 tons of plastic trash into the world's oceans every year, killing up to one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals annually. "Degradable" plastics may be a slight improvement, but not much. Because they only break down into smaller pieces upon extended contact with sunlight, they provide virtually no advantage inside a landfill or incinerator.

In 1987, the US used almost one billion barrels of petroleum just to manufacture plastics. That's enough to meet US demand for imported oil for five months. We can save that oil, and the disposal problems of plastic, by reducing our use of it, reusing it, and when possible, by recycling it.

Many recycling centers are starting to take plastic. The complication is that there are many different types of plastic in use. Fortunately there are a few kinds of plastic that are used more than all the others, and they are the ones that are most easily recyclable. It's important to separate plastics so they can be recycled in the appropriate bin. If you look carefully on the bottom of any plastic container, you'll probably find a recycling symbol inside of which is a number. This number will tell you what kind of plastic you have.

Compost
Thirty percent of US household trash is yard clippings and kitchen scraps. Sending these materials to landfills or incinerators is ridiculous, because they are incredibly valuable resources. When composted, they become the healthiest and richest type of natural fertilizer. In only 5-10 minutes per week, a person can "recycle" his/her organic waste by composting it and putting it back on the land.

Fortunately, more and more people compost their kitchen wastes and yard clippings. One way we know this is by measuring the number of compost bins sold each year in the US. In 1988, only 35,000 people bought compost bins. In 1992, more then 700,000 people bought them. More than 3 million American homes are now composting, and the number is growing daily.

Recycle Paper
If Americans would simply recycle their paper, and use recycled paper, we could cut our municipal waste almost in half. We could save most of the water, energy, pollutants, air pollution, and all the billions of trees that go into making paper out of forests. Recycling paper creates five times more jobs and it even saves money. It makes sense! The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries says paper recycling in the US is now saving over 200 million trees per year, even though recycling efforts are nowhere near what they could be.

We can also re-use paper. If you have paper that's only used on one side, the other side is still good. You can save it, and take it to a local printing company who will bind it into a new pad or into several smaller pads.

You can also reuse envelopes, boxes, and packing materials you receive in the mail. It's great to get a rubber stamp made that says something like: "This envelope was reused to save trees." That way you can set a positive example for others, and no one will think you were just being sloppy.

Use Recycled Products
It's wonderful that many people are recycling. But just recycling by itself isn't enough. We need to complete the cycle by using recycled products. Not enough people and companies use recycled paper. This makes recycled paper more expensive, which makes people less likely to choose it, which makes the cost higher, and so it goes. Sometimes paper just sits in huge warehouses, waiting to be recycled, for extended periods of time. If it isn't used, it may even be dumped into landfills or incinerators. We need to start using recycled paper in our homes, schools and at work.

The trick is to go for the highest possible "post-consumer" recycled content. Although "pre-consumer" is technically recycled paper, it doesn’t actually mean much. When you use post-consumer recycled paper, you will actually be saving trees.