America has a new found love affair with going green. Concerns about global climate change and the greenhouse effect have been present for over a decade now; but never have the concerns been more ligament than right now. Air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution are all increasing, so it is the responsibility of everyone on Earth to change the trend before it gets any worse. Recycling is an easy first step for businesses and households. Even the smallest change for the better has the potential for enormous world wide effects. For example, according to Duke-Energy.com:

       If every American homeowner took a few seconds to replace just one incandescent        light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, we would save:

• Enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year .
• More than $600 million in annual energy costs.
• The equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

• Recycling becomes less expensive when more people get involved.
• Recycling creates four times as many job opportunities than standard waste management programs.
• Recycled paper reduces the pressure placed on trees-in fact, 17 trees are saved each time 1 ton of paper is recycled.
  • Trees provide shelter for a limitless amount of wildlife. Cutting down a tree not only kills the tree, but potentially everything else around it.
• In 2000, recycling diverted 70 million tons of waste away from landfills.
• Recycling products creates less strain on the Earth's national resources.
• For example: It requires 95% more energy to create aluminum from rawmaterials over recycled materials.
• Recycling reduces the need for coal mining, thus requiring less and less minors to risk their lives everyday.
• Though mining can be a lucrative career, it is also extremely dangerous.Having current minors work in recycling factories instead will keep them safer, and the earth cleaner.
• Waste management plants and garbage trucks relay on foreign oil to do their jobs. A properly run recycling system is far more energy efficient; therefore, severely reducing our dependency on foreign oil.
• A supply of additional recycled products increases steadily as the demand for recycled products grows.
• As the demand for recycled products rises, so will the supply. Similarly, as the demand for products made from raw materials decreases, so will the supply.

• Motor oil never wears out, it simply gets dirty. Oil can be recycled, re-refined and used again, reducing America's reliance on imported oil.
• What's worse, one quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.
• Each day over 20,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped, using 133 square miles of recyclable aluminum foil. Unfortunately, most people don't realize, or don't care, that the foil around their Kisses is recyclable.
• Ohio's "Mount Rumpke" is the state's highest point. However, "Mount Rumpke" is actually a mountain of trash at the Rumpke sanitary landfill.
• The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. Meaning 5% of the world's people generate 40% of the world's waste.