• Americans recycle much more paper than we send to landfills.
• Most of an average household's waste- including paper, paper grocery bags, corrugated boxes, cans, and bottles- can be recycled. Food scraps and yard waste can be composted.
• Nearly 70% of the 24 billion newspapers published in the U.S. each year are recovered for recycling. When you recycle your used paper, paper mills use it to make new paper products.
• 84% of all Americans are recycling used paper at curbside or recycling drop-off sites.
• Each and every day, Americans recover for reuse and recycling more than 247 million pounds of paper.
• In 1998, nearly 45% of all the paper Americans used was recovered for recycling. America's forest & paper companies are committed to recovering 50% of all the paper Americans use. We're almost there, and you can help by recycling your used paper today!
• Kids are helping to get recycling programs started. They visit Town Hall, make speeches, write letters to the editor and get things done!
• Paper collected for recycling must always be separated from "contaminants" such as plastic wraps, glass or food waste.
• 45 million tons of paper were recovered in the United States in 1998- an average of 336 pounds per person.
• Enough paper is collected for recycling each year to fill a boxcar train 7,600 miles long.
• Nearly 218,000 tons of shredded paper is used each year for animal bedding.
• In the U.S. more than one-third of the fiber used to make new paper products comes from recycled paper.
• The sturdy brown or white boxes we used to pack things in are called corrugated boxes. They have a layer of paper- which has been corrugated and looks ruffly- glued between two more flat pieces of paper. 75% of all corrugated boxes are collected for recycling.
Amazing Forest Facts
Each year, the forest community plants 1.5 billion tree seedlings in the United States- that's more than 5 new trees for each American, and nearly 2,000 for every bear.
• There are 737 million acres of forest land in the U.S. Most forest products (things made from trees) are recyclable.
• Trees are a renewable resource. We can plant more trees, and we do!
• About one-third of the United States is covered by forests.
• Ginkgo trees provided food for dinosaurs, and yet they can still be found in backyards today. The single, oldest living thing on Earth is a tree, a 4,700 year old bristlecone pine tree in California. It was growing when the Egyptians built the pyramids.
• 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.
• America's forest and paper companies are committed to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)SM program, which balances the need for forest products with the need to protect and conserve our environment.
• More trees are grown through replanting and natural regeneration than are harvested in the U.S. each year.
• Thanks to today's new technologies, close to 100% of a tree can be used- with hardly any waste.
• More than 5000 things are made from trees: houses, furniture, baseball bats, crutches, fences, garden mulch, books, newspapers, movie tickets- even clothing, carpeting and toothpaste.
• Sawdust and wood shavings, saved from manufacturing wood products, are recycled to help make paper grocery bags, corrugated boxes and other products.
For more fun facts on forestry and recycling, contact:
American Forest & Paper Association.
1111 19th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036
Or visit them at:
http://www.afandpa.org Global Forest Facts
5.1 billion World population in 1989
6.2 billion Projected world population at the end of 2001 (updated)
240 million United States population in 1989
240 million Increase in world population every three years
Less than 10% Percentage of Planet Earth that remains in a wild state
14.72 billion acres Area of forested land worldwide in 1850
11.84 billion acres Area of forested land worldwide in 2000 (updated)
1 per 10 years Naturally-occurring rate of extinction
1 million Number of plant and animal species that scientists say will become extinct during the next 25 years due to human encroachment and habitat conversion
100. Daily number of extinction's in the next 25 years
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