Why Recycle?
We all know recycling is a good idea. Throwing that plastic bottle into the recycling
seems so simple, it's easy to lose perspective about how much of a difference it can
make. To show how much impact recycling can truly have on our planet here are a
few common materials and how much energy, water and other natural resources can
be saved by recycling them.
Aluminum Cans
Did you know that every year around 5 billion aluminium drink cans are sold in the
UK? That's a lot of fizzy pop!
Aluminium cans that are recycled in the UK are melted down and turned into ingots
of aluminium which are used to make new cans. Each one of these can be recycled
back into new drink cans over and over again.
Recycling aluminium cans saves energy (95 percent less energy than using virgin
materials) and natural resources, and also reduces the pressure on landfill sites.
Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb
burning for almost four hours or run your television for three hours
Plastic Bottles
Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy
required to manufacture it from raw materials, meaning we can save a whole lot of
energy by recycling plastic.
The energy conserved by tossing just one plastic bottle in the blue bin can light a 60watt light bulb for six hours or power a computer for 25 minutes.
Clothing and Textiles
Each person in the UK throws away approximately 30 kg of clothing per year all of
which comes with a footprint of embedded energy, water and toxins. Almost three
quarters of UK adults have thrown clothes away at some point in the past year.
But on the brighter side of things, reclaiming clothing and textiles for reuse and
recycling saves staggering amount of energy and natural resources.
Remanufacturing or reusing textiles can save up to 85 percent of the energy required
to produce the same product from virgin materials.
For clothing and textiles that are too worn-out to be used again, these can be used
as rags - e.g. for cleaning, filling. Clean fabric can be shredded and converted into
recycled fibre, known as 'shoddy'. This can be spun and used again for weaving.
Glass Bottles and Jars
Like aluminum, glass can be infinitely recycled back into new containers.
Recycled glass is substituted for up to 70 percent of raw materials in manufacturing.
Bottle-makers benefit from recycling in several ways - it reduces emissions and
consumption of raw materials, extends the life of plant equipment, such as furnaces,
and saves energy.
The energy saving from recycling one bottle will:
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Power a 100 watt light bulb for almost an hour
Power a computer for 25 minutes
Power a colour TV for 20 minutes
Power a washing machine for 10 minutes
Glass recycling facts
 One tonne of glass is made of 3000 to 4000 bottles
 Glass never wears out - it can be recycled forever
 We save over a ton of resources for every ton of glass recycled - 1,330 pounds
of sand, 433 pounds of soda ash, 433 pounds of limestone, and 151 pounds of
feldspar
Paper
These days we communicate most of the time by email and text, receive statements
online and fax machines are already a thing of the past – yet global paper
consumption since 1980 has gone up by almost half. The UK comes in at No11 in the
World in its consumption of paper, with each member of society using the equivalent
of 4.48 trees.
We use 4.6 million tonnes of office and printing paper annually in the UK, (44% of
total paper consumption), yet only 15% is recycled. It’s estimated that just 30% of
magazines and newspapers are recycled, so we could all do with making an extra
push on this easy-to-recycle waste.
Producing recycled paper requires about 60 percent of the energy used to make
paper from virgin wood pulp, but energy isn't the only thing we save through paper
recycling.
By recycling 1 ton of paper, we save:
 17 trees
 7,000 gallons of water
 463 gallons of oil
 3 cubic yards of landfill space
 enough energy to heat an average home for 6 months
Cardboard
The UK alone produces over 8 million tons of cardboard for packaging every year,
which amounts to about 140 large cardboard boxes for everyone in the country, per
year.
Cardboard is made from cellulose fibres that are created from wood pulp. To reverse
this process, for the purpose of recycling, the cardboard is soaked and agitated, to
release the fibres which can then be pulped.
Cardboard without plastic coating, and without too much writing and inks within it, is
ultimately biodegradable, and compostable.
Recycling 1 tonne of cardboard:
 Saves 2 cubic metres of landfill space and the equivalent of 17 trees.
 7000 gallons of water and 4,100kwh of electricity.
 Recycling cardboard saves 24% of the total energy needed for virgin cardboard.
 On a yearly basis in the uk there are 140 corrugated cardboard boxes used for
every person, enough to fill a full size football pitch!
Steel Cans
In the UK, we use 13 billion steel cans every year. On average, that means each
person in the country uses 240 steel cans per year!
Recycling steel saves 75 percent of the energy that would be used to create steel
from raw materials, meaning the steel we recycle saves enough energy to power 18
million homes annually.
Recycling 1 ton of steel saves:
 2,500 pounds of iron ore
 1,400 pounds of coal
 120 pounds of limestone