The Green Team program was created as a way for you to make a difference by incorporating environmentally responsible practices into your daily routine at work and at school. By joining our effort, you can help Kansas lead by example in energy conservation, pollution prevention, and resource preservation.

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Why Recycle?

• To conserve energy learn more...
  

  By recycling or reducing at the source, you can indirectly conserve energy. The steps in supplying recycled materials to industry, (collection, processing and transportation), use less energy than the steps in supplying raw materials to industry, (extraction, refining, and transportation). Additional energy savings associated with recycling occur in the manufacturing process, when products are made from already processed material versus from scratch using raw materials. For instance, making an aluminum can from recycled material requires only about 5% of the energy that would be needed to produce the can from raw aluminum ore. The amount of energy saved from this one can is enough to power a TV for 3 hours.

• To save money learn more...
  

  More and more, the production of waste is seen as a form of inefficiency and misuse of resources, which has both economic and environmental implications. Reducing waste means using and spending less, and getting more out of what is used. It costs money to dispose of trash. An organization that practices waste reduction, reuse and recycling is going to save money on waste disposal and operational costs and generate revenue from the sale of recycled materials and operational bi-products.

  Some organizations are adopting simple waste reduction habits such as reducing paper consumption through the use of e-mail and duplex printing. Others are reviewing their entire operation to identify and implement as many opportunities for reducing waste as possible. Whether simple alterations or large-scale initiatives, organizations are finding that waste reduction offers impressive rewards.

• To prevent pollution learn more...
  

  When less energy is used to make products, fewer fossil fuels are burned and less green house gas, mercury, and other harmful chemicals are emitted into the atmosphere to pollute our air, water, soil.

  Recycling also prevents the pollution that comes from landfills. As it decomposes, garbage produces methane gas, a potent greenhouse gas. By diverting material from landfills, recycling can reduce methane emissions. The material decomposing in landfills also produces leachate. Leachate is a liquid formed when water percolates through the garbage in a landfill. It can contain metals, bacteria, and toxins that sometimes end up in our soil and water.

  Recycling prevents pollution in yet another way by reducing the number of trees that are cut down to make products. Trees help clean the air by absorbing carbon dioxide. With more trees standing, more carbon is absorbed from the air.

• To preserve natural resources learn more...
  

  Recycling allows us to use natural resources more than once, reducing the need to chop down, extract, process, refine and transport natural resources such as timber, petroleum, and mineral ores. Glass, for example, never wears out. It can be recycled over and over again. By supplying industry with recycled materials, rather than virgin resources, recycling also preserves biodiversity by slowing the destruction of forests, wetlands, rivers and other places essential to wildlife. Additionally, other detrimental impacts, such as the soil erosion associated with logging and mining, are lessened.

• To promote economic development learn more...
  

  Recycling generates many significant benefits for the economy. In fact, the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive estimates that recycling and remanufacturing industries account for more than $200 billion in revenue annually. New businesses are created to haul, process, and broker recovered materials, as well as manufacture and distribute products made with recovered materials.

  These new businesses create new jobs. And the jobs created by recycling businesses employ workers from a broad spectrum of the labor market, ranging from low- to high-skilled positions in a variety of jobs, from materials handling and processing to high-quality product manufacturing to engineering new processes. The D.C. based Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) reports that on a per ton basis the sorting and processing of recyclables alone sustains ten times more jobs than landfilling. Recycling based manufacturers have an even bigger impact, employing even more people and at higher wages. For example, on a per ton basis, some plastics manufacturers employ up to 60 times more workers than do landfills (ILSR).

  Investments in recycling equipment and the companies themselves also filter through the economy and contribute to growth. Moreover, the drive for efficient handling and use of recycled materials spurs innovation, a key to long-term economic growth.