We have said it a thousand times, but it needs to be repeated: Recycle! If you haven’t already begun recycling, now is the time to start. The benefits of recycling vs. simply throwing away recyclable materials are tremendous, and more than enough reason to take the extra time to sort your trash.

If you haven’t yet been convinced to recycle, we think some of these facts about recycling might just do the trick:

• Recycling just one plastic water bottle saves enough energy to power a 100-watt lightbulb for 4 hours
• Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as it takes to burn plastic
• It only takes 5 recycled water bottles to stuff a ski jacket
• $11.4 billion worth of recyclable plastic is thrown away every year in the U.S.
• More than 100,000 marine animals die every year due to plastic pollution
• 80% of items buried in landfills could be recycled