In the spirit of recycling week (Nov. 10 to Nov. 17) you can test your eco-knowledge.

The answers to the following questions can be found on the white board at the bottom of the staircase in Mudd A-level.

1. How many aluminum cans must be recycled to equal the amount of energy it takes to drive five miles?

a) 20
b) 14
c) 6

2. What is the difference between recycling shredded and whole sheets of paper?

a) None
b) Shredded paper can be recycled about half the times.
c) Shredded paper can only be used for low-grade stuffing and filling, and cannot be recycled into sheet paper.

3. How long does it take for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill?
a) 500-1000 years
b) 5000-10,000 years
c) 1 million years

4. Over the course of an average American lifetime how much trash will be left behind?

a) 40,000 tons
b) 90,000 tons
c) 200,000 tons

5. Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates one job, landfilling the same amount creates six jobs, recycling the same 10,000 tons creates how many jobs?

a) 36
b) 106
c) 16

6. How many times can paper be recycled?

a) Once or twice
b) Up to eight times
c) Forever

7. On average, producing one ton of paper from recycled materials saves how many trees?
a) 3
b) 17
c) 31

8. How many trees are killed every Sunday because newspapers are wasted instead of recycled?

a) 100,000
b) 500,000
c) 1,000,000

9. How many tons of waste are disposed of daily in Los Angeles?

a) 35,000 tons
b) 10,000 tons
c) 25,000 tons

10. Motor oil never wears out, it just gets dirty. Oil can be recycled, re-refined and used again, reducing our reliance on imported oil. True or false?

If you have any questions or comments about recycling you can contact the Oberlin recyclers at recycle@oberlin.edu.

–Steven Wong
College junior

About us
Subscriptions
Advertising

Previous issue
Older issues