Sustainability
At Green Planet 21, our commitment to environmental sustainability has influenced every aspect of our business for the past 35 years. Our dedication to environmental stewardship is demonstrated through our efforts to provide recycling services for every type of material possible, as well as our continual pursuits to discover ways to recycle products previously deemed unable to be reused.
The Problem:
As you read this, forests are being destroyed, oceans are being polluted, and mining activity for virgin materials is devastating entire ecosystems. The time protect our environment is now.
- Every year an area of forest roughly the size of Costa Rica is destroyed by logging, mining, or other human activities.
- In the Pacific Ocean, over 100 million tons of plastic bags, bottles, toys, containers, and packaging has formed the “Pacific Garbage Patch”- a moving island of trash off of the California coast that has grown to twice the size of Texas.
- Species extinction rates are now 100 times what they have been throughout history due to pollution, habitat destruction, hunting, agriculture, global warming and population growth.
- The oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf Coast has and will continue to cause irreparable damage to surrounding wildlife and ecosystems.
How Can You Help?
The environmental devastation taking place each and every day is daunting and may seem too great for a single individual, or a single company, to be able to make an impact. But there are simple and easy ways that you and your company can make a difference:
- Recycle Plastics Waste in Your Workplace: Every ton of plastic recycled saves 11 barrels of oil from being consumed. Recycling plastics also reduces the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans. Green Planet 21 provides plastic recycling programs for companies of all sizes, and can install on-site handling systems for those companies generating large amounts of plastic waste.
- Recycle Paper and Cardboard Waste in Your Workplace: Every ton of paper recycled can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy, and 7,000 gallons of water. Green Planet 21 provides paper and cardboard (OCC) recycling programs for companies of all sizes, and can install on-site handling systems for those companies generating large amounts of paper or cardboard waste.
- Recycle Electronic Waste in Your Workplace: Electronic waste already constitutes from 2% to 5% of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream and is growing rapidly; European studies estimate that the volume of electronic waste is rising by 3%-5% per year- almost three times than that of the municipal waste stream. Recycling electronics reduces the need to mine the earth for virgin resources as recoverable heavy metals are found in most electronics, and when electronic waste is not disposed of properly, harmful chemicals leech into the soil and groundwater. Green Planet 21 can recycle all types of electronic waste, and can install on-site handling systems for those companies generating large amounts of electronic waste.
Recycling not only promotes environmental sustainability, but economic sustainability as well. Recycling creates four jobs for every one job created in the waste management and disposal industries. The recycling industry creates 1.1 million U.S. jobs, $236 billion in gross annual sales, and $37 billion in annual payrolls. An efficiently run recycling program costs less to operate than waste collection, landfill, and incineration enterprises.
Help do your part to protect and preserve the planet so that our children and grandchildren have the opportunity to enjoy the environment as we have. Contact the representative nearest you to learn more about the ways in which Green Planet 21 can help your company to go green.
