Doing My Part

Test your knowledge and impress your friends with your score (scroll to the bottom for the answers):

1.   How many pounds of trash does the average American generate per day?

a.   Under 1 pound

b.   About 2.5 pounds

c.    About 4.5 pounds

d.   Gazillions

2.   What is the grand total amount of trash the United States accumulates in one year?

a.   50 million tons

b.   250 million tons

c.    1 billion tons

d.   Only my garbage man knows for sure

3.   One ton of personal computer scrap contains more of this metal than is recovered from mining 17 tons of _________ore?

a.   Silver

b.   Copper

c.    Molybdenum

d.   Gold

4.   How many tons of electronic equipment is recycled each year?

a.   Less than one ton

b.   About 4 million tons

c.    More than 10 million tons

d.   None, because people would rather let it sit in their garage.

5.   Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run your television for how many hours?

a.   One

b.   Four

c.    Ten

d.   None, my television doesn’t run on aluminum cans, it plugs into the wall.

6.   If Americans recycled all paper in 2011, we could have diverted enough paper to cover 42,000 soccer fields in paper how deep?

a.   One inch

b.   Three feet

c.    Ten feet

d.   None, the paper would get wet and make a mess.

7.   True or False:

Producing steel cans from recycled material saves about 67% of the energy needed to produce them from raw material.

8.   Americans recycled enough of what product in 2011 to provide the raw material needed to produce 7 million extra large t-shirts?

a.   Plastic bottles

b.   Television sets

c.    Food products

d.   None, because t-shirts are made of cotton

Statistics From www.IWantToBeRecycled.org

Today’s gift was to do my part to recycle. I offered my rice steamer, an electrical product and a water purifier pitcher on www.freecycle.org. Friday, November 15 is National Recycle Day. I’m doing my part are you?

In Giving and Recycling,

Robin

Answers: 1. C, 2. B, 3. D, 4. B, 5. B, 6. B, 7. True, 8. A