Day 21 of the Zero Waste Challenge: How to Recycle

31 Day Zero Waste Challenge

January 21, 2019 | Kathryn Kellogg

Last Updated on August 21, 2024

Very few people know how to recycle correctly, regardless of it being such a green buzzword. Believe it or not, living a zero waste lifestyle is about recycling less – not more. One of the most prevalent ideas in the zero waste movement is pre-cycling which is preventing recycling from being necessary.

Today I’m challenging you to recycle less! Not because I want you to stop recycling, but because I want you to have less to recycle. I’ll share some recycling facts that may be eye opening to a first time recycler, as well as a quick recycling 101 crash course to let you know when it’s helpful and when it’s not. Learn how to recycle common materials, and why it’s important to reduce and reuse before recycling becomes your option!

Table of Contents

how to recycle

I want you to focus on reducing (day one of the zero waste challenge) and reusing (so many of the days of the zero waste challenge like using real stuff, bringing your own thermos to the cafe and repairing your belongings) before we ever get to recycling.

It’s day twenty-one of the zero waste challenge! In the beginning of the challenge, we focused on simple swaps like bringing your own water bottle and bags to the grocery store.

Now, we’re in the second phase of the challenge. These changes are lifestyle changes like learning to make your own snacks, decluttering your life the zero waste way, and conserving natural resources.

Topics get slightly more advanced as the challenge goes on. We end on activism and ways to get your community involved, but today we’re talking about recycling. More specifically, I’m sharing facts about recycling and why the goal should actually be to need to do it less.

Prefer video content? Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

recycling facts: the problem

Recycling is great, but it’s a flawed system.

We tend to view recycling as our environmental savior like it’s some sort of charity that will swoop in and save the day.

We tend to forget that recycling is a business. There has to be a demand for recycled products and materials, and often times… there’s not.

It’s cheaper to use virgin materials than it is to use recycled materials. Expensive processes = no money made. So a lot of the items we put in the recycle bin are never recycled.

For instance, out of all the plastic ever created, only 9% has ever actually been recycled.

Here’s a fun fact about recycling: as of Jan 2018, China put a ban on bales of paper and plastic to be recycled with a contamination rate over .5%. This is important because China has the world’s largest recycling capacity – if they’re making it that difficult, the rest of the world stands no chance.

Yikes, not so fun, huh?

To put that contamination rate into perspective, the best recycling facilities in the country operate around a 4% contamination rate.

This has completely sent the business of recycling into a tailspin. This is why we can’t rely on recycling, but we have to look for better options like reducing and reusing.

facts about recycling: the solution

This is a multi-step solution of recycling less and recycling better. You have to understand the recycling facts if you want to be able to make a difference.

Since I’ve gone into great detail throughout the challenge on how to reduce the amount of recyclables you have, this post will only focus on recycling better!

Here’s a quick run down of how to recycle the most common materials.

glass

A 100% recycle rate. There is no loss of quality or purity in the process.

Over a ton of natural resources are saved for every ton of glass recycled.

For every six tons of recycled glass used in the process of manufacturing new glass, carbon dioxide gas is reduced by a ton.

aluminum

A 100% recycle rate. Aluminum is one of the most recyclable materials, and it’s worth the most.

Americans landfill almost a billion dollars of aluminum cans every year.

Believe it or not, an aluminum can is able to be be back on the shelf within 60 days of recycling.

There is no limit to how many times aluminum can be recycled. It is considered a self-sustaining metal.

paper

Fun facts about recycling paper: There’s only a 65% recycle rate.

The typical American will use seven trees a year for paper. That is approximately 2,000,000,000 trees every single year. Half of that ends up in a landfill.

Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water.

This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution.

It costs 50–80% less to use recycled paper than it does to make paper out of new pulp.

Also make sure that the paper you’re recycling is clean!

Paper must be clean and dry, and paper towels and napkins are NOT recyclable. But they are compostable! See challenge day 10 to learn more about composting).

plastic

A 9% recycle rate. Many plastics on the market have been ‘recycled’ by melting different types of plastic into a new, unrecyclable form of plastic.

The US consumes 2.5 million liquid filled plastic bottles every hour. Only around 27% of them are recycled.

Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam coffee cups every year.

Improperly disposed plastic finds its way to the ocean where it kills a million sea creatures a year.

There is a 66% energy saving when new plastic products are made from recycled materials instead of raw materials.

going zero waste challenge: recycling 101

Today your challenge is to head to your waste management companies website and see if what you’re recycling is truly recyclable.

Print out a list and put it on the fridge or on your recycle bin.

Go through your recycling and your trash to make sure that you’re separating correctly.

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fun facts about recycling: gzw education

I’ve also created guides on how to recycle the right way! Be sure to check the list out below and blow your friends minds with all the cool and obscure facts about recycling you magically know!

I’ve done all the research for you so you don’t have to.

want more?

Just starting out? Have 1,000 burning questions!?

Get access to my private GZW community, where I’ll be hosting weekly lives throughout the challenge and I answer all of your most pressing questions.

PLUS! I’ll be sending out a brand new e-book at the end of the challenge called the Game On Handbook which is all about individual ways to fight climate change.

You don’t want to miss it.

faqs about how to recycle the right way

why is important to recycle less?

The facts about recycling above don’t lie. A recycle bin does not guarantee your item is going to be recycled. That means that recycling waste is just that: waste.

It’s important to keep stuff out of the landfills, and out of the recycling factories, if we can help it. This is where reducing your waste, reusing things like cups wherever possible, and using things until you absolutely can’t anymore make a big difference. Then, recycling is the next best option to sending it straight to a landfill.

how much does the recycling industry make each year?

One would hope that recycling is done out of the goodness of peoples’ hearts, but it is in fact a business. In fact, recycling is a $200 billion business in the US alone. This is promising in that money means there’s a demand, and a demand means there will be more of it. However, it also means that if a certain process, material, or initiative isn’t profitable, it’s not going to happen at this point in time.

what are some other recycling facts?

Recycle Across America is an excellent resource for recycling facts. They’ve dedicated their organization to fixing the American recycling crisis through clear action items. Their site offers a ton of fun recycling facts to motivate and educate the American people.

Some of my favorite facts listed on their site include:

Recycling 1 ton of cardboard saves 46 gallons of oil.
Nearly 80% of all retailers and grocers recycle their cardboard.
US recycling levels are currently at 21.4%
At 75%, it would be the environmental equivalent of removing 55 million cars off the roads.
At 75%, it would generate 1.5 million new jobs for the economy.

what would happen if everyone recycled?

I can’t emphasize enough that recycling just to recycle is not helpful. However, if everyone reduced their consumption, reused items whenever possible, and only recycled as a last resort, huge changes could happen. In researching facts about recycling I found huge implications to Americans recycling better.

First, there’d be a massive reduction in resource depletion. Energy savings is another. For instance, recycling aluminum requires 95% less energy than producing it from raw materials. Of course, we’d be keeping trash out of the landfills and reducing methane and greenhouse emissions. And lastly, we’d see job creation and economic growth based around the health of the planet.