Scrap Recycling Forum

Most are eager to help our environment by recycling and their might be more willing if they know some important recycling facts. Recycling is essential for green lives and conserving our earth's resources.

Instead of recyling, avoid cutting down of trees... for constructing jungle of cement... i mean huge buildings and adding to global warming...

Recycling is already a fact. Used paper can be recycled to become a brand new paper... I think there are lot more, but this is the only one i have in mind.

Recycling in Clearwater
Acceptable items are: plastic bottles (with a number 1 or number 2 imprinted on the bottom), steel and aluminum cans, newspaper and mixed paper (anything that tears including junk mail, magazines, catalogs, phone books, envelopes, office paper, wrapping paper, etc.) Cardboard is accepted at our dropoff center only and should not be placed in your bin. The dropoff is located at 1701 N. Hercules Avenue.

Paper (all grades, including newspaper, cardboard and office paper):
By recycling one ton (2,000 lbs.) of paper, we save: 17 trees; 6,953 gallons of water; 463 gallons of oil; 587 pounds of air pollution; 3.06 cubic yards of landfill space and 4,077 Kilowatt hours of energy.

Around 45% of the paper Americans use each year (over 47 million tons) is recovered for recycling. This is made into a wide variety of goods such as new newsprint, boxes and office paper, paper towels, tissue products, insulation, cereal boxes, molded packaging, hydro-mulch, gypsum wallboard - even compost and kitty litter!

80% of U.S. papermakers use some recovered fiber in manufacturing, and nearly 200 mills use ONLY recovered paper for their fiber.

The average American uses 650 lbs. of paper per year.

100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all that paper was actually recycled!
Sources: American Forest & Paper Association, Inc.; Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Weyerhaeuser

Plastic:
Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.

Since 1978, the weight of a soda bottle has been reduced by 29%.

HDPE (#1) and PET (#2) are the most commonly recycled plastics.

Recycling a ton of PET saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.

Half of all polyester carpet manufactured in the US is made from recycled soda bottles.

Recycled plastic is also made into plastic lumber, clothing, flower pots, insulation for sleeping bags & ski jackets, car bumpers and more.
Sources: American Plastics Council, Environmental Defense, NAPCOR

Aluminum:
Currently 100% of all beverage cans are made from aluminum. Aluminum cans made their first appearance in America in 1953.

We use about 392 cans per person per year.

Aluminum cans typically have a recycled aluminum content of about 55%.

62.8 billion or 63.5 % of aluminum cans are recycled annually.

Recycling aluminum saves about 95% of the energy it would take to produce aluminum from its original source, bauxite.

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to run a TV for three hours.

Aluminum recycling is so efficient that it can take as few as 60 days for a can to be collected, melted down and made into a new can sitting on a grocery store shelf.

Recycled aluminum is made into cans, pie pans, house siding, small appliances, lawn furniture; in fact , almost everything aluminum.
Sources: The Aluminum Association, Inc.; National Soft Drink Association

Steel:
The steel (or "tin") can was invented in England in the early 1800s. Nowadays an increasing amount of steel cans are tin free.

The average American uses 142 steel cans annually.

The steel packaging recycled in 2000 would yield enough steel to build 185,000 steel framed homes - the equivalent number of homes in Wyoming.

In 2002, 25% of all new homes will be framed in recycled steel.

The steel from the more than 84% of appliances (39 million) recycled last year yielded enough steel to build about 160 football stadiums.

Recycling just one car saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone.

95% of scrap automobiles were recycled in 2000 in the US, at a rate of 25 cars every minute.

Through recycling each year, the steel industry saves enough energy to power 18 million homes - one-fifth of the households in the US.

Recycled steel is made into steel cans, building materials, tools - in fact, almost everything steel.

Some Interesting Facts
Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could be recycled.
The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a television for 5,000 hours.
The largest lake in the Britain could be filled with rubbish from the UK in 8 months.
On average, 16% of the money you spend on a product pays for the packaging, which ultimately ends up as rubbish.
As much as 50% of waste in the average dustbin could be composted.
Up to 80% of a vehicle can be recycled.
9 out of 10 people would recycle more if it were made easier.
Aluminium

24 million tonnes of aluminium is produced annually, 51,000 tonnes of which ends up as packaging in the UK.
If all cans in the UK were recycled, we would need 14 million fewer dustbins.
£36,000,000 worth of aluminium is thrown away each year.
Aluminium cans can be recycled and ready to use in just 6 weeks.
Glass

Each UK family uses an average of 500 glass bottles and jars annually.
The largest glass furnace produces over 1 million glass bottles and jars per day.
Glass is 100% recyclable and can be used again and again.
Glass that is thrown away and ends up in landfills will never decompose.
Paper

Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials.
12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard are used annually in the UK.
The average person in the UK gets through 38kg of newspapers per year.
It takes 24 trees to make 1 ton of newspaper.
Plastic

275,000 tonnes of plastic are used each year in the UK, that’s about 15 million bottles per day.
Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic per year, which could otherwise be recycled.
The use of plastic in Western Europe is growing about 4% each year.
Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose.

If you’re not already recycling, find out more about how easy it is and how you can really make a difference. For those who already recycle, discover the positive effect your recycling efforts are making and find out what else you may be able to do.

Recycling Conserves ResourcesWhen we recycle, used materials are converted into new products, reducing the need to consume natural resources. If used materials are not recycled, new products are made by extracting fresh, raw material from the Earth, through mining and forestry.

Recycling helps conserve important raw materials and protects natural habitats for the future.

Recycling saves energyUsing recycled materials in the manufacturing process uses considerably less energy than that required for producing new products from raw materials – even when comparing all associated costs including transport etc.

Plus there are extra energy savings because more energy is required to extract, refine, transport and process raw materials ready for industry compared with providing industry-ready materials.

Recycling helps protect the environmentRecycling reduces the need for extracting (mining, quarrying and logging), refining and processing raw materials all of which create substantial air and water pollution.

As recycling saves energy it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which helps to tackle climate change. Current UK recycling is estimated to save more than 18 million tonnes of C02 a year – the equivalent to taking 5 million cars off the road.

Recycling reduces landfillWhen we recycle, recyclable materials are reprocessed into new products, and as a result the amount of rubbish sent to landfill sites reduces. There are over 1,500 landfill sites in the UK, and in 2001, these sites produced a quarter of the UK’s emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.