GEF

Unit 10  |  Toward a Sustainable Future 218 ingredients as substitutes for synthetic chemicals, an approach taken by many cleaning and personal care companies. Recycling conserves landfill space and reduces pollution from incineration, improving air quality and lessening climate change. Recycling also saves energy: producing recycled aluminum cans uses up to 95 percent less energy than making cans from new metal. Another area of green product design is the widespread use of recycled materials to produce items such as paperboard, office paper, and paper towels. The availability of paper products created from recycled materials has steadily increased follow- ing consumer demand. Today, over half of the material used to make paper in the U.S. is recovered waste. Paperboard boxes for food items often contain between 20-75 percent recycled content, and many companies offer “green” paper products containing 100 percent recycled content. The use of recycled materials benefits the environment and economy. ?  DID YOU KNOW 350.org is anon-governmental organization (NGO) that is directed by environmentalist Bill McKibben. McKibben began educating the world about the threat of climate change back in 1989 with his book The End of Nature . The 350 in the organization’s name stands for the “safe” upper limit of parts per million (ppm) of CO 2 in the atmosphere as recognized by leading climate scientists. As of 2017, Earth is at 400 ppm, up from 316 ppm in 1959, the first year of global CO 2 measurements.