Recycling Tips from the Zoo

We visited the Zoo yesterday and saw they have new recycle bins in the cafe area. Very neat!

If you did not know, Brevard Zoo has great tips and information that you can read while visiting their website. Every time you access the site you may see different information on recycling, conservation, global warming, etc. Here are some interesting ones I collected to share with you:

• Did you know that each year millions of trees and billions of gallons of water are used to create junk mail, most of which never gets recycled? There are several things you can do to reduce how much junk mail you receive. After using junk mail—and any other paper you don't need to keep—as scrap paper, recycle it.

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 28%. Source, Environmental Protection Agency.

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for 3 hours. Source, Eco-Cycle.

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months. Source, Environmental Defense Fund.

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of 1,000 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100% recycled ones, we could save: 373,000 trees, 1.48 million cubic feet of landfill space, and 155 million gallons of water. Source, Seventh Generation Co.

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. The U.S. is 5% of the world's population, but uses 25% of its natural resources. Source, Environmental Protection Agency.

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70%, water use by 50%, and air pollution by 20%. Source, Environmental Defense Fund.

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. The energy saved each year by steel recycling is equal to the electrical power used by 18 million homes each year--or enough energy to last Los Angeles residents for 8 years. Source, Steel Recycling Institute.

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. Recycling creates 6 times as many jobs as landfilling. Source, Colorado Recycles.

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for 6 months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of air pollution. Source, Trash to Cash

• By reusing many of the products already created--such as aluminum, glass, paper, and plastic--we can reduce energy consumption. If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees--or about 26 million trees per year. Source, California Dept. of Conservation

• The availability of clean water is one of the central issues of our time, and we all need to do our part to use this resource wisely. Saving water is simple! Turn the water off while brushing your teeth, washing your hands, and washing dishes.

• The availability of clean water is one of the central issues of our time, and we all need to do our part to use this resource wisely. Saving water is simple! Take shorter showers (you will save water and energy to heat it, reducing your carbon dioxide emissions)

A few other simple tips come from the Zoo's Green Team:

• Raise your thermostat setting 5 degrees in the summer when no one is home and do the opposite in the winter
• Recycle your old cell phones at the Zoo
• Only water your lawn twice a week
• Plant low maintenance or native plants to enhance wildlife instead of the law
• Purchase paper with some recycled content
• Use a reusable coffee cup instead of a disposable cup next time you visit your favorite coffee shop

The Green Team is a special group of Zoo employees that work toward "inspiring our community to take action in natural resource conservation." This group is responsible for ensuring that the Zoo continues to be a sustainable organization and at the same time they help in educating those in the community on how they can make a difference. One of the things they do to bring information to the community is organize the Eco Friendly Fair Day once a year. It is a nice event that you should try to attend if you have not yet.

We have invited the Zoo's Green Team to participate in our America Recycles Day event. We hope they are able to join us!

Some good information here to digest, but from all that was listed above what do you already do and what would you be willing to do in order to improve the numbers presented?

Recycle Brevard!