Let's Find Out How Green Are You?
Are you a champion for the planet or just a casual recycler? Test your recycling smarts with this quiz!
- 1.Americans throw away enough trash to fill __ garbage trucks every day.
- A.
5,500
- B.
109,00
- C.
63,000
- 2.Recycling rates in America have ______ since 1980.
- A.
Slowly decreased
- B.
More than tripled
- C.
Stayed about the same
- 3.How much does waste disposal cost the United States annually?
- A.
More than $100 billion
- B.
Approximately $900 million
- C.
Between $40 and $60 billion
- 4.What percentage of Americans recycles regularly?
- A.
50%
- B.
35%
- C.
75%
- 5.Which of these three things gets recycled the least?
- A.
Plastic
- B.
Yard trimmings
- C.
Glass
- 6.How much food goes to waste in the US each year?
- A.
11 billion pounds
- B.
133 billion pounds
- C.
84 billion pounds
- 7.How many plastic water bottles did Americans use last year?
- A.
1 billion
- B.
50 billion
- C.
25 billion
- 8.The energy equivalent saved by recycling one ton of paper is _______.
- A.
165 gallons of gasoline
- B.
320 gallons of gasoline
- C.
80 gallons of gasoline
- 9.What kind of waste takes up the most landfill space?
- A.
Food waste
- B.
Textile waste
- C.
Glass waste
- 10.How long does it take for aluminum to degrade in the landfill?
- A.
200-500 years
- B.
90-100 years
- C.
10-25 years
- 11.Which country has the highest recycling rate in the world?
- A.
United States
- B.
Austria
- C.
France
- 12.Americans make up 5% of the global population, but create __ of the world’s garbage.
- A.
10%
- B.
25%
- C.
30%
- 13.Which item do Americans recycle 95% of?
- A.
Batteries
- B.
Newspapers
- C.
Clothing
- 14.About how many pounds of clothing does the average American throw away every year?
- A.
65-70
- B.
20-25
- C.
45-50
- 15.What percentage of textiles is recycled in the U.S.?
- A.
45%
- B.
3%
- C.
15%
- 16.How many pounds of CO2 are saved for every pound of recycled textiles?
- A.
1
- B.
7
- C.
4
- 17.How many trees are cut down each year to make paper?
- A.
1,000,000
- B.
4,000,000,000
- C.
12,000,000,000
- 18.What are some items that can be made from recycled textiles?
- A.
Park benches, tires, swimming pools
- B.
Dollar bills, home insulation, baseballs
- C.
Livestock feed, industrial lubricants, newspaper
- 19.What happens to unwanted textiles that are donated to charities?
- A.
They are given away
- B.
They are sold on domestic and international markets
- C.
Some is given away to help the homeless and poor but most of it is sold
- 20.What is single-stream recycling?
- A.
An approach for collecting litter along river banks
- B.
An engineering method for removing waste liquids from recycled materials
- C.
When recyclable materials are collected together and separated out later
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