The Lack Of Resources Encouraged Recycling During Wartime The outbreak of two major world wars in the early 20th century brought crippling shortages of precious natural resources. These major world-changing occurrences dipped available resources, and forced governments to encourage recycling. During World Wars 1 and 2, governments urged their citizens to conserve wood, paper, textiles, fiber, and even donate metals and precious jewelry. The amount of wood and paper that we throw in our landfills each year is more than enough to heat 50,000,000 for the next twenty years. Used aluminum beverage cans are among the most easily-recyclable items today. A used aluminum can be recycled and returned back to the grocery shelf in as little as 60 days, and recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television set for 3 hours. What s The Best Way For Recycling Cardboard? The word cardboard generally refers to any heavy-duty paper product. The most common form of cardboard is corrugated cardboard. This type features a wavy cardstock sheet that s squeezed between two other cardstock sheets. Corrugated cardboard is made from sturdy and long-lasting material, and is best used for packaging. The Environmental Protection Agency or the EPA, states that the United States has 10,000 municipal and 3,000 urban landfills. The sad thing is that most of these landfills are tightly sealed, to prevent the garbage from leaching and contaminating nearby rivers, lakes, streams or seas. The tight sealing of these landfills though effectively inhibits the natural degradation of organic wastes. While CFL s have a quite higher purchase price, it can save as much as 30 dollars in electricity costs over the lighting unit s life span. Environmental Issues Regarding The Use Of CFLs While compact fluorescent lamps have longer life spans, and save you money on electricity bills, these products contain mercury, which makes their disposal a quite complex one. Refund or Deposit Programs This program is popular in the US, especially for buyers of canned or bottled beverages. The beverage bottles or cans have a deposit added to the purchase price. Consumers may return the empty can or bottle to a collection facility, and redeem the deposit, which usually goes from one to five cents.