 Did you know that 17 trees could be saved for every ton of paper?  Did you know that if all morning newspapers read around the country were recycled 41,000 trees would be saved daily and 6 million tons of waste would never end up in landfills?  Did you know that if 100,000 people stopped their junk mail that 150,000 trees could be saved annually? By recycling 1 ton of paper you save . . . .  17 trees  6953 gallons of water  463 gallons of oil  587 pounds of air pollution  3.06 cubic yards of landfill space . . . and 4077 kilowatts of energy  Did you know that Styrofoam is UNRECYCLABLE!?!? The industry wants you to assume it is but it isn't. You can not make new styrofoam from it. Each year Americans throw away 25 billion styrofoam cups. Even 500 years from now, that styrofoam cup you used today will still be in the landfill!! Avoid Purchasing!!!  Recycling paper uses 60% less energy than manufacturing from raw materials!  Recycling '1' glass jar saves enough energy to keep a light bulb lit for 4 hours!  Recycling Aluminum takes 95% less energy than making it from virgin materials!  Americans use 100 million tin or steel cans a day. Just imagine, every minute, 9000 cans are recovered from trash with magnets and the average American throws out 6 pounds of tin every month. ThatÕs enough to make a steel pipe from Los Angeles to New York and back again. There is enough steel thrown away to build all the new cars made in America every year. WOW!
If you aren't yet recycling, it's easy! All you do is:
1. Get at least two containers to collect recyclable items in during the week. Since recyclable paper has to be separated from other recyclable materials on trash day, it's a good idea to keep separate bins for paper and for all other items (glass, cans, etc.). You can get official Town of Franklin recycling bins free at the DPW office. You can also use any large container you want as long as it's clearly marked "Recyclable."
2. Put your bins in a convenient place. Putting them in the general vicinity of your trash can often works well.
3. As you come across recyclable items during the week, toss them into the proper bin instead of in the trash.
4. When you bring your trash barrels to the curb on your regular trash day, bring the recycle bins as well. Put the bins some distance away from the trash (such as on the other side of the driveway) so the separate recycle and trash truck drivers can quickly locate and pick up the correct items.
Nothing to it! It's easy to do your part!
Are you a student (K-12) or teacher? Massachusetts offers a great program called The Green Team to help with recycling. Their web site is at www.thegreenteam.org.
Why should we recycle?
 Recycling saves natural resources  Recycling saves energy  Recycling saves our environment  Recycling saves money on your trash bill  Recycling adds value to Massachusetts's economy  Recycling is good business So how are we doing as a town? This chart shows Franklin's tonnage of overall trash picked up at the curbside and how much of that was separated for recycling:
As you can see, we're not doing as well as we could be. There are obvious seasonal variations, but the overall amount of picked-up material is heading down a bit - which is good! However, the amount of recycled material has been pretty steady, or declining - we need to get that number up! With just a small amount of effort in each household, we can do better. The Franklin Recycling Committee's goal is to help increase the recycling rate by 2% this year. That would amount to about an additional 400 tons of material recycled. Achieving this would save the town about $33,600! You can help!
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