Curbside Facts

Oklahomans generate about 7.1 pounds of garbage every day. This amount is equal to the national average. The nation's extremes range from South Dakota's 3.8 pounds daily to Indiana's 11.5 pounds daily. According to United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) figures, in 1997 the U.S. generated about 217 million tons of municipal solid waste. Ten years later, the total was about 388 million tons. ("MSW Management Study," Waste Age, Dec. 10, 2007, p. 16)

Unfortunately, the US EPA also reported that the nation's overall recycling rate in 2008 was 28.5 percent, up only 0.5 percent from 1997 figures. Still the national rate is far above Oklahoma's current 3.8 percent recycling rate. A total of 64.1 percent of MSW winds up in landfills across the nation; in Oklahoma 88.2 percent of MSW is landfilled. Alternative methods of waste management, such as waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting, have fast become key components of MSW management. (Tulsa Master Recyclers' Manual, Jan. 2008)

Since November 1999, Tulsans have recycled 10,280.21 tons of recyclables through the Curbside Recycling program.

Plastic
Recycling saves energy. The raw materials for the production of plastics are 70% natural gas and 30% oil. The 66 million BTU savings per ton of finished plastic bottles is enough energy to fill a 20-gallon gasoline tank every week for 10 years.

In 2007-2008 Tulsa Recycles recovered 124.92 tons of plastic for a savings of 8,244 million BTU, enough to fill a 20-gallon tank every week for 1,249 years.

Trees
Every week more than 500,000 trees are used to produce the two-thirds of newspapers that are never recycled.

During 2007-2008 Tulsa Recycles recovered 898.49 tons of mixed office paper, saving 15,274 trees, almost 6.3 million gallons of water, 27 tons of air pollution, 2,965 cubic yards of landfill space, and 3.6 million kilowatt hours of energy.

Glass
We get 27.8 pounds of air pollution for every new ton of new glass produced. Recycling glass reduces that pollution by 14-20%. Recycling a ton of glass saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil.

In 2007-2008 Tulsa Recycles recovered over 124.92 tons of glass, saving more than 1,124 gallons of fuel oil.

Aluminum
Recycling used aluminum cans requires only about five percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from bauxite. Recycling just one can saves enough electricity to light a 100-watt bulb for 3½ hours.

In 2007-2008 Tulsa Recycles recovered enough aluminum to meet all the electricity needs of 290 homes for one year.

Sign up for Curbside Recycling today!