Recycling Quick Facts
Recyclables
Glass
 Glass is completely recyclable and can be recycled a million times over to produce the same high
quality bottles and jars.
 Recycling 1 tonne of glass saves 1.1 tonnes of raw materials (sand, limestone, soda ash), and energy
use is cut by 30 per cent. Crushed glass (or cullet) melts at a lower temperature than the raw materials,
which saves energy.
 A glass bottle can take anywhere between 4000 and 1 million years to break down in landfill. Make
sure yours end up in the recycling bin on bin night.
 Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to power a 100-watt light bulb for four hours, or a
fluorescent bulb for 20 hours.
Plastic
 It takes 125 recycled plastic milk bottles to manufacture a 140-litre wheelie bin from recycled plastic.
 Plastic bottles and containers can be recycled to become wheelie bins, fleece jackets, outdoor chairs
and benches.
 The energy saved by recycling one plastic drink bottle would power a computer for
25 minutes.
Steel
 Every year in Australia 17.5 million steel cans are recycled – enough steel to build 900 new cars.
Aluminium
 It only takes 60 days for an aluminium can to be recycled, repackaged and put back on our
supermarket shelves.
 Recycling an aluminium can requires less than 5 per cent of the energy that would be used to create a
similar can out of bauxite ore.
General

Kerbside recycling in Victoria saves enough water to fill about 4,500 Olympic sized swimming pools
every year.