Each and every year thousands upon thousands of tons of trash is thrown into landfills. While we are in no immediate danger of running short on landfill space, this is expensive in terms of space, time, and energy invested, as well as the sheer waste of materials that will not ever be used again. So, consider the reasons below for keeping your steel and aluminum cans out of landfill sites by recycling them instead.
- Aluminum that has been recycled is back in use again within 2 months. On the other hand, it would take over 200 years for that metal to break down naturally in a landfill.
- Recycling is not just about material savings, but also about energy consciousness. Each aluminum can recycled saves enough energy to run a television for 3 hours; one pound of cans recycled will save enough energy to run it for four days!
- Metal cans can be exchanged for cash at many places. Several states offer five cents for each can given to them, and some recycling centers offer between fifty cents and two dollars for every pound of cans recycled.
- Recycled aluminum and steel are have exactly the same composition as ‘new’ aluminum and steel. Recycled metals are simply melted down and then forged into new products.
- Every day, Americans recycle around 100,000 aluminum cans per minute. The majority of that number is a result of certain communities working hard on special projects that they set-up, and that is something that you should encourage those in your neighborhood to take up, as recycling can bring communities together.
- The 100,000,000 ‘new’ steel cans produced every day contain 25% recycled materials. That is the equivalent of 25 million reclaimed cans vs. 75 million completely new cans. If more people recycled, that number would soon become 50-50 and a huge amount of energy and resources would be saved.
- The United States currently uses steel which is more than 65% recycled. That is not too bad, but there is definitely room for improvement. This proportion would go up significantly if more people knew that they can recycle their steel cans.
- There are can crushing machines available that can be used to make the job easier, including some that can be made at home for almost no cost. Therefore, it is no excuse to say that recycling cans takes up too much space within your home.
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http://www.cancrusher.org.uk is a site offering information about recycling aluminum and steel cans.
Tags: environment, green, metal recycling, recycle, recycling