Go Greener Tips

Every year thousands upon thousands of tons of trash is thrown into landfills. While we are in no danger of running short on landfill space, this is expensive in terms of time, space, and energy invested, as well as the sheer waste of materials that will not ever be used again. With that in mind, consider the reasons below for keeping your aluminum and steel cans out of the landfill by recycling them instead.

- Aluminum which has been recycled is used for new projects within a couple of months. On the other hand, it would take over 200 years for that same to break down naturally if were just thrown away.

- Recycling is not just about material savings, but also about energy consciousness. Every aluminum can which is recycled saves enough energy to run a tv for 3 hours.

- Metal cans can be recycled for cash at many places. Several states offer five cents per can recycled, and some recycling centers pay anywhere between fifty cents and two dollars per pound of cans recycled.

- Recycled steel and aluminum are no different in composition from ‘new’ aluminum and steel. Recycled metals are simply melted down and then forged into new products, which can then be recycled again when they are finished being used.

- On average, Americans recycle around 100,000 aluminum cans per minute. The majority of that figure is a result of certain communities working hard on special projects, and that is something that you should encourage those in your neighborhood to take up, as recycling can really help with bringing a community together.

- The 100,000,000 ‘new’ steel cans made on a daily basis contain 25% recycled materials. That is the equivalent of 25 million reclaimed cans vs. 75 million completely new cans. If people recycled more frequently, that number would soon become 50-50 and a great deal of energy and resources would be saved.

- The United States currently uses steel which is more than 65% recycled. This is a good start, but there is definitely room for improvement. Significant further progress would be made if more people were aware that they can recycle their steel cans.

- There are multiple can-crushing machines available, and you can even make a home-made one for free. 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.