Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into reusable materials. Common items that can be recycled include paper, plastic, metal, clothing, and electronics. Recycling helps reduce waste sent to landfills and decreases the consumption of new raw materials. It also lowers energy usage and environmental pollution. Failure to recycle has negative consequences like plastic bottles taking up to 1,000 years to decompose in landfills. Increased recycling efforts are needed since only about 1% of plastic bags currently get recycled.

1. Recycling
James McCleese

2. What is Recycling?
 Recycling is the process of converting waste into a
reusable material.
 Recycling can also apply to reusing items without
changing their structure.

3. What Can be Recycled?
 Paper
 Plastic
 Metal
 Clothing
 Electronics

4. The Water Bottle Effect
 The average American consumes
167 bottles of water each year.
 30 billion bottles are littered or end
up in landfills each year, taking up
to 1,000 years to decompose.
 Enough oil is consumed creating
bottles each year to fuel 100,000
cars.

5. Plastic Shopping Bags
 Shopping bags are one of the easiest items to
recycle, and one of the most commonly used.
 These bags take up 1,000 years tobiodegrade
naturally.
 Only about 1% of all plastic bags ever get
recycled.
 Although bags break down into smaller pieces,
they’re not biodegrading. They are photo-
degrading, which means they simply break into
smaller pieces which easily absorb even more
toxins than they started with.

6.  On average, there are 46,000 pieces of plastic from bags
floating on every square mile of ocean in the world.

7. Landfills
 Earth has two man made structures that can be
seen from space: The Great Wall of China, and the
Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island.
 Approximately 200 million tons of trash end up in
landfills each year.

8. Fresh Kills Landfill
Great Wall of China

10. Where to Recycle
 Recycling bins can be found
outside of most major stores.
 Grocery stores will typically
have containers for used
plastic bags outside the door
as well.
 Aluminum and other metals
can be taken to recycling
centers located within most
cities.

11. Reusing and Repurposing
 Old cd’s can be reused as coasters.
 Refilling water bottles saves both money and plastic,
and lowers energy consumption.
 Old clothes should be donated rather than thrown
away, as long as they’re in good condition.
 Food cans and jars can be cleaned and reused as
containers for holding small objects.