"Garbage Dreams": Not just a dream, a reality

In less than two minutes, I saved more than 32 million joules of energy. The most amazing part about it was that it did NOT require any magic powers. In fact, it hardly required any energy at all. All I did was recycle about 6 liters worth of plastic bottles. Pretty neat, huh? Did you know that producing plastic water or soda bottles requires between 5.6 and 10.2 million joules of energy per liter? Instead of just throwing all of that useful energy away, I recycled it so that it can be used again and again. Like what my fellow classmates have said before and what we will keep reiterating over and over again while blogging, is that all it takes is a few extra steps or a mere couple of minutes out of your day to recycle reusable items instead of throwing them away. That small amount of time will impact the planet we live on.

You may be thinking, How can I change the world by recycling? Well I'll tell you. Here are some facts:

• Recycling 1 aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours, or the equivalent to a half a gallon of gasoline. 
• An aluminum can that is thrown away will last 500 years from now. However, a recycled aluminum can is recycled and back on the store shelf in as little as 60 days.
• If every American recycled just 1 out of 10 newspapers, we would save almost 25,000,000 trees a year.
• Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kills as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

These are only few of the insane statistics that show how recycling makes an impact on our planet. As we go along, I'll be posting more and more to show how YOU can make a difference by recycling. If you don't recycle, imagine what the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that was introduced to you yesterday will look like over the next few years. It'll look repulsive.

Today our class skyped with Tiffany Schauer, a prominent environmental activist. While I can't possibly begin to describe how amazing she is, I learned that she served as the Executive Producer for a documentary called Garbage Dreams. The documentary won many awards, and was even shortlisted for a 2009 Academy Award! The film documents 3 teenage boys in Cairo, Egypt who live in the world's largest garbage village. These teenage boys are able to recycle 80% of the garbage they collect.

All of us, including YOU should feel ashamed when learning about that compared to what goes on here in the United States, the wonderful first world country that we take for granted. The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world. That means that 5% of the world's people generate 40% of the world's waste. We, as happy-go-lucky people with all of the world's resources at our fingertips on a silver platter, look dumb for not being able to accomplish what 3 teenagers did in terms of recycling. Think about that. Think about how YOU can give a couple of minutes of YOUR time to save the planet. Because frankly, we are way behind schedule.

                                                                           S.P.

                                                     

To learn more about Garbage Dreams visit: http://www.garbagedreams.com/

Check out more recycling facts: http://www.recycling-revolution.com/recycling-facts.html

                                                  

                                                   http://www.physorg.com/news156506896.html