14 Fun Facts About Recycling For Kids

It's easy to recycle. Make sure you throw recyclable materials in the recycling bin instead of the trash!

 We produce so much waste, and half goes to landfills instead of being recycled. Our rubbish requires resources like coal, trees, and oil to produce. If rubbish is thrown in landfills instead of recycled, we lose these resources, which must be replaced with new ones. By recycling, we prevent the loss of these resources.

That is why it's essential to teach children; why should we recycle, why is recycling important, what things can be recycled etc. Educating kids about recycling will lead to better recycling habits, creating a healthier planet and environment for us all.  

What Is Recycling

The process of recycling involves taking organic materials such as glass, plastic, metal, or Paper and repurposing them. Children should learn what can be recycled as part of their recycling education. Below is a list of what things can be recycled:

• Plastic
• Cardboard
• Aluminium
• Glass
• Batteries
• Mobile phones
• Printer cartridges
• Computers, televisions and computer accessories
• Clothes

Why Should We Recycle

Recycling involves collecting and processing waste materials into new products instead of throwing them away. You can benefit the environment and your community by recycling. Check out more benefits:

• Reduces landfill and incineration waste
• Preserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals
• Utilizes domestic resources to increase economic security
• Reduce pollution by eliminating the need for new raw materials 
• Reduces energy consumption
• Conserves valuable resources and supports American manufacturing

What Are The Recycling Facts For Kids

Educating kids about recycling can create a healthier planet and environment. We've put together a list of recycling facts for kids. Hopefully, you'll find these facts interesting and learn more about recycling. 

1. A cardboard box (also called corrugated) can be recycled at least seven times and used to make new packaging or furniture. Cardboard can be recycled easily, which is the best part. There is curbside recycling for corrugated boxes available to almost all Americans. Ensure they're empty, clean, dry, and flattened.
2. When a used aluminum drink can is recycled into a new one, how long does it take for the can to be put back on the grocery shelf? It takes just 60 days. Americans love recycling aluminum cans over any other type of drink container because they can be reprocessed multiple times.
3. About 2.4 million tons of recycled glass are manufactured into new bottles and jars annually. The great thing about recycling glass is that it can be recycled endlessly without losing its quality or purity. Using recycled container glass in manufacturing reduces carbon dioxide emissions by one ton every six tons.
4. Whether you're recycling a plastic bottle, shampoo container, peanut butter jar, or laundry detergent bottle, most community programs allow you to keep the cap on. The plastic containers should be empty and dry. A tank in which different materials float and sink is used to separate bottle and cap waste after they have been ground into plastic flakes for recycling.
5. Each year, the United States recycles enough iron and steel scrap metal (ferrous scrap) by weight to build nearly 900 Golden Gate Bridges.
6. In 2018, more than 52 million tons of paper products were recycled. That is approximately the same as the weight of almost 350,000 blue whales.
7. The recycling process helps save energy. Recycling one glass bottle can power a 100-watt bulb for four hours, a computer for 30 minutes, or a television for 20 minutes.
8. The energy saved from recycling one aluminum can is enough to run a 55-inch HDTV to watch your favorite movie. By recycling all aluminum cans in the U.S., we could power 4.1 million homes for an entire year with the energy they would have saved.
9. How is plastic recycled? Besides making new plastic containers, they can also be recycled. Recycled plastic makes items like cell phone cases, playground equipment, clothes, and rugs.
10. Has Paper always been made by recycling? It is believed that Paper, as we know it today, originated in China thousands of years ago from mulberry bark, hemp, and rags mixed with water, mashed into a pulp, pressed, and dried in the sun. Most Paper is made from trees grown in working forests and recycled Paper. Recycled Paper is used to make new newspapers, notebook papers, paper grocery bags, corrugated boxes, envelopes, magazines, cartons, and other paper products.
11. The recycling process saves raw materials. Recycling glass, for instance, conserves 1,300 pounds of sand, 410 pounds of soda ash, 380 pounds of limestone, and 160 pounds of feldspar.
12. You can turn one person's trash into another person's treasure by recycling! Approximately 17 tons of gold ore can be recovered from one metric ton of electronic scrap from personal computers.
13. Recycling is beneficial both ecologically as well as economically. By recycling all 37.4 million tons of recyclable materials from households yearly, greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 20 million cars from U.S. highways, and 370,000 jobs would be created.
14. What's your favorite morning drink? Does it come in a carton? Well, that carton can be recycled! In addition to toilet paper, paper towels, and roof cover boards, the pulp and pressboard from recycled cartons can be used to make other eco-friendly building materials.

Final Words

We all have a role to play in ensuring that our recycling system is successful. We can make a difference by recycling to the best of our abilities when we have more knowledge. For this reason, we developed this list of fun recycling facts for kids.  Hopefully these recycling facts will help you out.

Let your friends and kids' teachers know about these fun recycling facts!