Americans buy plastic bottles and canned food that’s worth
money in other countries. But you don’t know how it destroys the environment.
In 2009, the plastic bottle recycling rate reached a record high of 2.5 billion
pounds, or 28% of all plastic bottles consumed in the United States. Guess
what?! In 2009 almost 30 million tons of plastic were generated in the United
States, and only around two million tons were recovered. If you tied a rope to
all the aluminum cans recycled in 2010 end to end, they could circle the earth
169 times. Did you know that the aluminum cans recycled in 2010 (stacked one on
top of the other) would be 1,454 times taller than the Empire State building?
From 1972-to-2003, we threw away over one trillion aluminum cans- enough to
reach around the earth 3,048 times. Those are facts that are tragic, but were
just getting started.
Why should we recycle and reuse
plastic bottles & aluminum cans? Here’s why. You should recycle plastic
bottles and aluminum cans because there’s not a lot of landfill space left.
When a ton of plastic bottles are recycled, about 3.8 barrels of petroleum is
saved. Also, 50 percent of steel is
being recycled right now, but WE CAN DO BETTER. Recycling steel and tin cans
saves about 60 and 74 percent of the energy used to make them. Plus, recycling
one aluminum can saves enough energy to run your TV for three straight hours.
Those are just little foot prints on the Earth, but we can do better.
Here are some examples of how you
can help. You can use a reusable water bottle. Make tin cans into art (like
statues). You can also make plastic bottles into pots for plants. You can get a
recycling bin. You can also ask for a tour of the recycling station, and reuse
tin cans for pencil holders. Those are some things you can do, but I have more.
At this point were going to get specific,
like let’s say, directions. One thing I plan to do & you can do as well to
reduce the amount of plastic bottles is make them into a bowl for ice cream.
All you have to do is ask your mom or dad to help to cut the plastic bottle.
Then you can decorate it. Another thing I can do and you as well is grab a tin
can and permanent marker and draw a design on the can. Then ask your mom or dad
to help punch the holes in the can. To punch the holes you just need to take a hammer
and a nail, then just hammer the nail on the line, then just take it out. Do
this on the line until you come back to the beginning. Put a light in and it
will light up the night. These ideas can reduce the amount of landfill trash.
It matters that you reuse and
recycle plastic bottles and aluminum cans because it takes a lot of bad gases
and energy to produce them. Why should you care? Because the bad gases can kill
animals and even us. They also use a lot of energy to make them and someday
we’ll all run out. If people don’t stop this, it could make landfill space run
out and then this world will look terrible. To stop all of this, you just have
to remember the three words: Reduce, Reuse, And Recycle.
