Recycling Small Big Changes

Recycling is an easy to save a lot of energy use and fuel use.  The discipline to learn to recycle certain containers versus simply throwing them in a trash can does not take much effort thanks to America's organized system of recycling and can severely reduce wastefulness of resources.  This small thing applied to a large group of people becomes a strong force.  Just to cast a glimpse of some of the effects of neglecting recycling and to inspire listeners to take advantage of this opportunity to save resources--and thus stewarding our earth better--here is a video packed with statistics regarding recycling aluminum and plastic (and other such topics).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnjDzEeqI6w

350,000 aluminum cans produced every minute
The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years
Plastic bags and garbage thrown away into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year
Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator
Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct

Some of these facts simply encourage the idea of not being wasteful more so than actively promoting recycling, but these numbers do make it clear that wastefulness carries negative consequences to other aspects of life and could be put to good use.

I admit that I did not check the numbers of these facts with other websites, and the video does not include any sources for their information.  But if you care enough about this topic, go check--you shouldn't take my word on this anyway.