Recycling

 Communities that recycle are making the right choice, and have also created a positive example of how  we as individuals can better our environment by taking conservation into account in our daily lives.  Separating your paper, plastic, glass and metal waste may seem labor intensive, but is quite simple in  actuality and many communities offer recycling bins for different materials or collect all of these types of  waste from one container and separate them later at community funded recycling centers.

 Recycling not only saves natural resources but saves energy as well. It takes a great deal of energy to  produce some of the items that we recycle. For example, in a recycling case study in the year 2001, the  state of Vermont saved an estimated 2 trillion BTU’s of energy over the course of just one year by  recycling. The approximate cost of this much energy is roughly 10 million US dollars or the equivalent of  365,000 barrels of oil. Vermont was able to save roughly 5% of the energy they use in one year by  these figures. If one of our nation’s smaller states can conserve this much energy in only one year, just  imagine what an entire country can do if they are motivated to improve their environment.