We all know that we should be recycling the paper that we use, but very few of us actually do it. Why is that? It is not difficult to do, so the assumption must be that we are not fully aware of the benefits that it provides. With that in mind, what follows is a look at the main benefits to be had from recycling paper...

- Forests, and the wildlife that live within them, are destroyed as a result of our excessive use of paper. Put simply, the less paper we recycle, the less trees we need to cut down. As well as the effect on wildlife and plant-life, excessive deforestation also creates visual scars on our beautiful planet. Once a forest has been cut down, there is little to no chance of that land ever being home to an ecosystem again.

- There are many useful everyday items that can be made from recycled paper. These are some examples - newspapers, phonebooks, Cardboard Boxes, envelopes, egg cartons, paper towels, toilet paper and notebooks. If items such as these are not made from recycled paper then more trees have to be cut down to produce them, which really is a waste, as these items are equally good made when they are made from recycled paper.

- Recycled paper has cost benefits as it is made from materials that would otherwise constitute the solid waste that is polluting our environment. By infusing this material into the paper manufacturing process, and getting rid of the costs associated with 'virgin' pulp and whitening agents, companies can achieve cost savings by both producing and consuming recycled materials

- Recycled paper products conserve resources and generate less pollution during manufacturing. This is because the fibers have already been processed once. It also reduces solid waste because it takes usable paper out of the waste stream. That means less total energy, water, and chemical use, and lower releases of air and water pollutants.

- It takes less energy to manufacture recycled paper and, as most of the energy that we use comes from fossil fuels, this can have a major effect on the environment. Any opportunity to use less coal and oil should be readily taken up. Maybe in the future, when we use more environmentally friendly forms of energy this will not really matter, but for the foreseeable future we have to cut back on the amount of energy that we waste as it damages the environment to create it.

I have always felt that it is extremely important for each and every one of us to do our part at making this world a better place. That is why I wanted to discuss the benefits of recycling, because it can sometimes seem to make little difference, though the reality is that by recycling you are making a positive impact on the environment, imagine if you could talk all of your friends and family into doing the same, the results would be fantastic.

Around our house, recycling plays a very large roll in our lives. We attempt to recycle anything and everything we can get our hands on including plastic(sorted by numbers), aluminum, glass and even food which we turn dinner scraps into compost for our plants. Old cellphones are shipped off to Cell Phones for Soldiers and other electronics are either donated or recycled in the proper manner.

I will be the first to admit that this recycling "craze" we have takes a fair amount of our time, but I also believe that it is well worth the effort if for nothing more than we are doing our part to protect the planet. We have spent a lot of time teaching our kids to recycle and the benefits of doing so, in hopes that when they are older and move out on their own, they will make the choice to recycle as well. All of our friends have been converted to savvy recyclers along with family members and neighbors.

Facts about garbage and the benefits of recycling

• Americans throw away on average 694 plastic bottles every second in this country. At this rate, over the course of a single day 59,961,600 plastic bottles will be thrown out.
• The average American will produce 4.6 pounds of garbage every single day, which means there is 1,679 pounds of garbage produced annually by a single person. If you live in a typical 4 person household, your family alone is producing 6,716 pounds of garbage each year.
• The U.S. is home to a mere 6% of the worlds population, yet we produce half of the worlds garbage.
• Waste paper is New Yorks single largest export. If a single ton of that paper had been recycled, they would have saved 17 trees.
• Approx. 25 - 30 percent of Americans garbage is plant matter and could easily be composted.
• It takes only six weeks for the average aluminum can to be recycled, remelted and back on the shelves of your local grocery store.
• The U.S. throws away 40 million tons of paper each year rather than recycling it and saving trees.
• Recycling can reduce the amount of waste that enters landfills and incinerators by 25% - 50%.
• Manufacturing aluminum cans from recycled aluminum requires 90% less energy than making new ones.
• If you were to recycle 1 ton of cardboard, it would save over 9 cubic yards of landfill space.

Are you starting to see the bigger picture yet? There are a lot of benefits to recycling your waste and as you can see above a lot of negative side affects if you don't. There are numerous ways to reduce your carbon footprint, don't you think its at least worth a shot.