text: why is it good to recycle?   it reduces the demand on our natural resources, saves valuable landfill space, and creates opportunities for new industries.   if we don’t recycle, we will eventually run out of space for all of our trash.  what will we do with it then?   it saves money. almost every trash disposal bill can be reduced by recycling more. for our entire community, this is an important economic consideration. trash disposal costs are a drain on our local purchasing power, while recycling can generate new revenue from sales of recyclable commodities.  it saves resources and energy. for every ton of paper we recycle, about 17 trees are saved that would otherwise be cut for paper pulp. other resources that are saved include 7,000 gallons of water, 380 gallons of oil, and enough electricity to power the average home for six months.  by recycling a single aluminum can, enough electricity is saved to run a tv for six hours.  by recycling a single glass bottle, enough electricity is saved to operate a 100 watt light bulb for 4 hours.  it saves landfill space. a landfill is space which we have destroyed for almost any future use except storing garbage. the less trash we put in landfills, the more land is available for future generations.  helps to prevent pollution: almost all manufacturing processes use water and release wastewater and air emissions into the environment. reducing and reusing products cuts down on manufacturing pollution, just as the use of recycled instead of virgin materials prevents pollution in industrial processes.   it's the law. to protect our environment, the state of california requires each city and county to recycle 50% of all solid waste by the year 2000. reaching this goal requires the support of all households and businesses. for more information, call the mendocino solid waste management authority at 468-9710.  did you know? the average u.s. household discards each year 13,000 paper items, 500 aluminum cans, 500 glass bottles, and 1,800 plastic items.  every week, more than 500,000 trees are used to produce the two-thirds of newspapers that are never recycled.  american consumers and industry throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial airfleet every 3 months.  to make a 6-foot long park bench out of recycled plastics ("plastic lumber"), it takes 1,050 recycled milk jugs.  there's lots of good reasons to recycle!! do you recycle?