Why You Should Recycle Metal Tins
Save Energy
Recycling reduces energy consumption. The energy saved by recycling one can is enough energy to power a TV for three hours. Recycling steel cans saves up to 74% of the energy it cost to make brand new cans.
Reduce Waste
Recycling steel reduces air pollution; reusing steel creates four to five times less carbon emission then producing new steel.
Preserve Raw Materials
For every ton of steel recycled it saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,000 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone.
The Life Cycle of Recycled Metal Containers
Life After the Recycle Bin
Have you ever wondered what happens to your metal containers once you send them on their way to be recycled? The metal containers are sent to a local recycling center where they are sorted, cleaned, crushed and bailed. The bails of metal are then sent to the manufacturing plant where they are shredded and re-melted with new metal. The new bulk metal is then sent to the product manufacturing plant where it will be made into a new product. Recycled aluminum is usually turned back into cans for refilling. Recycled steel is use to produce items such as bicycles, paper clips, and cans. Sounds like a long process? Not really, a recycled metal container such as a soda can could be out of the recycle bin and back on the shelf in as little as 60 days!
Have you ever wondered what happens to your metal containers once you send them on their way to be recycled? The metal containers are sent to a local recycling center where they are sorted, cleaned, crushed and bailed. The bails of metal are then sent to the manufacturing plant where they are shredded and re-melted with new metal. The new bulk metal is then sent to the product manufacturing plant where it will be made into a new product. Recycled aluminum is usually turned back into cans for refilling. Recycled steel is use to produce items such as bicycles, paper clips, and cans. Sounds like a long process? Not really, a recycled metal container such as a soda can could be out of the recycle bin and back on the shelf in as little as 60 days!
Facts About Recycled Metal Containers
- Steel is the #1 recycled material in North America. It is the easiest material to recover for recycling purposes because of its magnetic nature it can be easily separated.
- It will take a can 80-100 years to start to break down in a landfill.
- Tin cans are actually 99% steel. Americans throw away enough steel and iron to supply all the nations automakers on a continuous basis.
- Every day Americans use enough steel and tin cans to make a steel pipeline running from Los Angeles to New York ...and back. If we only recycle one-tenth of the cans we throw away, it would save about 3.2 billion cans every year.
- The steel packaging recycled in 2000 would yield enough steel to build 185,000 steel framed homes, the equivalent to the number of homes in Montana.
- In 2002, 25% of all new homes where framed with recycled steel beams.
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