Recycling saves 95 percent of the energy required to make aluminum cans from virgin ore. In 1995, aluminum companies saved the equivalent of over 20.6 million barrels of oil -- or 12.3 billion kilowatt hours by recycling. (Can Manufacturers Institute)

Once an aluminum can is recycled, it can be part of a new can within six to eight weeks. (The Aluminum Can Association)

An average of 113,204 aluminum cans are recycled every minute of every day (Headwaters Cooperative Recycling).

More than 20,000,000 Hershey's kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of aluminum foil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it. (The Internet Consumer Recycling Guide Grassroots Recycling)

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will light a 100 watt bulb for 4 hours. (San Diego County Office of Education, RAYS - Recycle and You Save)

Using recycled glass to make new glass cuts related air pollution by up to 20% (Californians Against Waste Foundation, Recycling Means Business in California)

Glass can be recycled again and again with no loss in quality or purity. Glass containers go from recycling bin to store shelf in as little as 30 days! (Glass Packaging Institute)

The national recycling rate for glass containers is just over 25 percent, according to a 2005 study by the EPA. (Earth 911)

Forests are oxygen factories. To grow a pound of wood a tree uses 1.47 pounds of carbon dioxide and gives off 1.07 pounds of oxygen. (American Forest & Paper Association)

86% of Americans (254 million) of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs. (American Forest & Paper Association)

Every ton of paper that is recycled instead of thrown away saves 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. (American Forest & Paper Association)

Recycled Paper production uses 58% less water than virgin paper production. (Earth Care Paper Fact Sheet)

The EPA has found that making paper from recycled materials results in 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution. This means that every ton of the atmosphere compared to manufacturing paper from wood. (Pimental, David, The seeds of Change)

Americans use enough low density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic every year to shrink-wrap the state of Texas. Most of it ends up in the landfill. (Exxon Chemical Company, Chemtalk)

It takes over 1.5 million barrels of oil to manufacture a year's supply of bottled water. That's enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars. (Earth 911)

80% of plastic water bottles that could have been recycled end up in a landfill. (Earth 911)

Plastic bottles take 700 years before they begin to decompose in a landfill (Earth 911)

If the Pilgrims had six-packs, we'd still have the plastic rings from them today. (EarthWorks Group, The Recycler's Handbook)

Making tin cans from recycled steel takes only one-fourth of the energy and creates only one-fourth of the water and air pollution created by making cans from new steel. (Newman, S. & Schwarz, M., 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Recycle)

Steel is the most recycled material in the United States. Steel dominates the recycling mix because every year the steel industry recycles huge amounts of steel scrap from cars, appliances, and torn-down buildings and bridges. Today, all steel products are made with some recycled steel (EPA).

Annually, enough energy is saved by recycling steel to supply Los Angeles with electricity for almost 10 years (Headwaters Cooperative Recycling).

It takes half a barrel of crude oil to produce the rubber in just one truck tire. (EarthWorks Group, The Recycler's Handbook)

About eight out of every ten tires in the United States wind up in landfills or "stockpiles". An estimated 2 to 3 billion tires are currently stockpiled in the U.S. (EarthWorks Group, The Recycler's Handbook)

Americans represent only 5% of the world's population, but generate 30% of the world's garbage. (Thurston County Public Works, Trash Flash)

In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. If you add it up, that means that a 150 pound person will leave a legacy of 90,000 pounds for his or her children. (EarthWorks Group, The Recycler's Handbook)

In some cities garbage was simply tossed out the window and covered periodically with dirt. During the Bronze Age in Troy, it is estimated that the street level rose an average of about 4.7 feet per century. (Wilson, Wendy, No Time to Waste)

About 500 B.C. Athens issued the first known edict against throwing garbage into the streets, and organized the first municipal dumps by requiring scavengers to dispose of waste no less than one mile from the city walls. (Worldwatch Institute (Worldwatch Paper 76)

In 1690, the first papermill in the U.S. was established by the Rittenhouse family on the banks of the Wissahickon Creek, near Philadelphia, PA. The paper was made from recycled rags. (Landfills are #1, Garbage)

Curbside recycling originated in 1874 in Baltimore, MD. (EarthWorks Group, The Recycler's Handbook)

In 1889, a Washington, D.C. health official wrote "Appropriate placed for {refuse} are becoming scarcer year by year… The waste must be provided for, and provisions should not be longer delayed". (Landfills are #1, Garbage)