•In the US 33.4% of solid waste is either recycled or composted, 12.6% is burned in combustion facilities and 54% makes it’s way into landfills.

•The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) estimates that the 36 billion aluminum cans landfilled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million.

•Americans throw away about 28 billion bottles and jars every year.

•The amount of recycling in 2007 saved the energy equivalent of 10.7 billion gallons of gasoline and prevented the release of carbon dioxide of approximately 35 million cars

•Each ton of mixed paper that is recycled can save the energy equivalent to 185 gallons of gasoline

•Approximately 8,660 curbside recycling programs exist in the United States

•There are about 3,510 community composting programs in the United States. •Disposal of waste to landfills has decreased from 89% in 1980 to 54% in 2007 •Recycling 1 ton of aluminum cans conserves the equivalent of 1,665 gallons of gasoline

•The EPA estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.

•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.

•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.

•The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash every day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year.

•Americans make more than 200 million tons of garbage each year, enough to fill Busch Stadium from top to bottom twice a day.

•A glass container can go from a recycling bin to a store shelf in as few as 30 days.