Americans throw away enough glass bottles and jars every two weeks to fill the 1,350-foot towers.

A ton of glass produced from raw materials creates 384 pounds of mining     waste. Using 50% recycled glass cuts it by about 75%. We get 27.8 pounds of air pollution for every ton of new glass produced.

Recycling glass reduces that pollution by 14-20%.

Aluminum can recycling saves 95% of the energy needed to make aluminum from bauxite ore. Energy savings in 2003 alone were enough to light a city the size of Inglewood for 10 years.

Scrap steel reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%. It takes four times as much energy to make steel from virgin ore. Annually, recycling steel saves enough energy to supply the City of Los Angeles with almost a decade worth of electricity.

Even 500 years from now, the foam coffee cup you used this morning will be sitting in a landfill.

Glass never wears out—it can be recycled forever. We save over a ton of resources for every ton of glass recycled—1,330 pounds of sand, 433 pounds of soda ash, 433 pounds of limestone, and 151pounds of feldspar.