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Don't Trash It Until You Try It
Most people want to save the planet, but just aren't sure what they can do.  A good place to start is recycling.  Almost all communities have some kind of recycling program and many suburbs have curb-side pick-up available.  A 2007 American Paper and Forest Association Survey showed that "87 percent of the U.S. population, or 268 million people, have access to curbside or drop-off recycling programs." Based on this, recycling may be more accessible than you once thought.  

What Makes It Green?
As we all know, recycling keeps items out of landfills.  In 2006, the US produced over 251 million tons of trash - about 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day.  Of this garbage 57% is buried in landfills.  Because of this staggering waste build up, our landfills are filling up.  There are about 1500 landfills in the United States and they are filling up faster and faster.  Half of the waste found in landfills is packaging.  Here's a breakdown of some of the other recyclable items in our landfills:  paper, metals, yard waste, plastic, and glass.

Recycling also helps us to deplete less of our natural resources, as the recycled items are used in producing new things instead of raw materials.  

What You Can Do

The EPA estimates that about 75% of what Americans throw away could be recycled.

Because of the size of my kitchen, I just keep a small bin in a lower cabinet and drop everything in that.  The curb-side bin is in the garage and I set up larger storage bins on shelves for the things my curb-side recycling doesn't pick up.  Every day or two, I take the small bin to the garage and put everything where it belongs.  It only takes a few minutes.