According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recycling your aluminum and steel cans will reduce CO2 emissions by over 300 pounds a year. It uses less energy to turn old cans into new cans than it does to make cans from raw ore. There is a lot of energy used to mine and process the raw materials. Even with the transportation costs added in for collecting and delivering the recycled cans, it uses less energy to convert the recycled cans into new cans!

Recycling your newspapers will reduce CO2 emissions by more than 350 pounds a year. By recycling paper, fewer trees are cut down, and less energy is used to process old paper into pulp than to process wood into paper.

Consider that, according to American Forests, a typical tree will store one ton of carbon during its 90-120 year lifespan.

And, don't forget to "close the loop." Buy products made from recycled materials to ensure that there is a market to support the increased recycling of materials. Each ream (500 sheets) of 100% recycled paper you buy instead of unrecycled paper means 5 pounds less CO2 released into the atmosphere.