How Many Jumbo Jets Could Camden County's Recycling Build?

When you drag that recycling can to the curb this week, take a look inside and count the aluminum cans in there.

Add in the neighbors on your street, all the houses in your town and all the towns across Camden County in all of 2012, and those cans would be enough to build seven Boeing 747s, according to statistics released by ReCommunity, the county's recycling partner, for Earth Day.

It adds up to 478 tons of aluminum—or nearly 31 million cans—and that's just the start of it.

Among the 44,701 tons of recyclable materials kept out of landfills in 2012 were 159,474,070 plastic bottles—4,203 tons worth—and 5.4 billion sheets of paper, according to ReCommunity's statistics.

Recycling that much plastic is the equivalent of saving 2.88 million gallons of oil, and paper recycling adds up to the equivalent 456,993 trees.

In all, the county's recycling efforts prevented 129,725 metric tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases, which is like taking 23,759 cars off the road every year, according to ReCommunity's statistics.

“By definition, sustainability is all-encompassing, including environmental, economic and social benefits to Camden County,” said freeholder Jeff Nash, the liaison to Camden County’s Division of Environmental Affairs, which supervises Camden County’s recycling program, in a statement. “Our recycling efforts have enabled us to generate additional revenue, create new jobs, fund budget shortfalls and reduce our carbon footprint.”

For more of Camden County's recycling statistics, check out the PDF, above.