Recycling is one of the most important things we can do for the environment around us. Tons of trash gets thrown away every year, and most of the things we throw out every day can be sent right back into the cycle and be useful again. Instead of filling up landfills, recycling can save the world – even if it’s one simple item at a time.
Here are some of the best fun facts about recycling for kids.
What is Recycling for Kids?
Recycling means the process of taking an object and doing something to it (sometimes a chemical process, such as heating or melting) so that the object can be used again, usually as something else entirely.
Recycling is very important for the environment because it saves energy. Recycling also helps to reduce the world’s carbon footprint, or harmful gas emissions. Trash can be dangerous to wild animals and their habitats; recycling ensures that their habitats don’t get filled up with the world’s garbage.
How Does Recycling Save Energy Facts for Kids?
Recycling can save energy by doubling the lifespan of an ordinary object – sometimes even more.
When products are recycled, we don’t need to use large amounts of energy so that another object can be made. Recycling provides more than enough from what we have already used, instead of us having to make new things.
Manufacturing – making, that is – takes a lot of energy from the world.
Recycling does not use as much energy by comparison.
Importance of Recycling for Kids
Recycling is important because it saves energy, but also because it can save the environment from pollution.
Making things creates a whole lot of pollution, and continuing to make new things just increases this number further. Recycling uses the same things to put the items back into the cycle – and recycling an object doesn’t take as much energy as it does to make it from scratch.
Trash can be very harmful to the environment. For example, small sea animals often get stuck in plastic rings that people would normally just discard without a thought.
If these items were all recycled, we could literally save thousands of animals each year.
What is the Most Recycled Thing in the World?
Steel is the most recycled thing in the world.
According to statistics, about 88% of the world’s total steel gets recycled and turned back into other steel products.
The world goes through approximately 1.86 billion metric tons of steel every year. That’s an incredible amount!
Steel is easier to recycle, though a lot of materials aren’t.
What Can Be Recycled?
The most common items that can be recycled are:
Aluminum
Batteries
Concrete
Cardboard
Steel
Paper
Plastic
Not all items can be recycled, though.
For example, only some types of cardboard and paper are recycle-friendly. If the paper or cardboard has been stained by food or oil, then it can’t be recycled anymore!
Also, only certain types of plastic count.
Non-Recyclable Materials
There are some items that cannot be recycled at all. Some of these are:
Colored paper
Cups
Dirty plates
Egg carton
Straws
Spectacles
Styrofoam
These items are considered non-biodegradable, which means that they won’t break down into a natural substance – or if they do, that it could take millions of years to happen. These items are also non-recyclable, which means that they cannot be recycled into anything else – and these products are the “last step” of what the product can be.
This last-step creates a massive problem for the ecology. All the products we can’t recycle contributes to landfills – and the more people use them, the bigger these landfills get.
Single use items made from these materials create a massive problem for the environment, and none of these items can be recycled – ever!
Did-You-Know? Recycling Facts For Kids
The estimated household collects approximately 4 to 5 pounds of trash every single day… Most of it can be recycled!
Recycling a single aluminum can creates enough energy to light up an iPod for several hours.
Only approximately 30% of trash in the USA ever gets recycled.
Recycling is an industry on its own, and earns approximately $200 billion in the United States per year.
The world recycles about 620, 000 tons of aluminum every year – and it’s still not enough.
Recycling one glass bottle can save the amount of energy it would take to light a 100 watt bulb for about four hours.
Paper gets recycled at a rate of just over 60% per year.
Glass, paper and some plastic are the most common recycled items.
Landfills can turn into a literal big problem for the world ecology. When trash collects and compacts together in the ocean, it can even create an artificial island that’s made entirely of trash – and this is extremely dangerous to sea life. “Trash-islands” are an increasing problem, and one of the world’s largest is approximately the size of Texas..
