Rainbow Recycling

MARILYN SOBANSKI serves as the hub for our group, handling most communications with town staff, government offices and business organizations. She manages the information and educational resources and creates many of the displays. Marilyn is a CRU qualified recycling professional.

KATHRYN BEATTIE can be seen around the region in her Biodiesel refrigerated truck. She hauls fresh produce and locally produced goods (and frequently cardboard for recycling) around the Carolinas and Georgia.

Why Recycle?

• So you’re wondering—what does recycling have to do with me? Turns out, it’s all about you, your home and the good stuff you deserve. Here are the ins and outs of recycling.

• Most people think of the obvious concerns on our environment and the air. But there's more to it that that.

• Recycling creates more and higher paying jobs, lowers our taxes, strengthens national security, and more!

The less we need to expend on importing raw materials, and the energy needed to process raw materials, the more we can spend on ourselves and our children.

• The United States' major industrial sectors need recycled materials now more than ever. In fact, they are counting on those supplies to expand.
• There are around 530 recycling businesses in North Carolina employing more than 14,000 people.
• Let’s go on the low side and say all those recycling people make $25,000/year. That means recycling creates a $325 million payroll for North Carolina each year, which is plowed back into the economy through purchasing, home buying, savings in local banks and paying of property and income taxes.
• A 20 percent increase in recycling would create as many as 500 new jobs in this state. And you know the drill - more jobs mean more money, a stronger economy, cuter babies and all that.

Environmental Impact

• Recycling an aluminum can saves 95 percent of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from virgin materials.
• Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials.
• Producing glass from virgin materials requires 30 percent more energy than producing it from crushed, used glass.
• Producing recycled paper requires about 60 percent of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.