Door 2 Door Recycling
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Recycling Facts

This is why recycling is very important.

One ton of recycled aluminum saves:

14,000 kwh of electricity
1,663 gallons of oil
237.6 million BTU of energy
10 cubic yards of landfill space

Aluminum takes take 200-500 years to fully degrade in a landfill. Recycled aluminum takes 95% less energy than making aluminum from raw materials.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours.

One ton of glass saves:

  • 42 kwh of electricity
  • 5 gallons of oil
  • 714.3 BTU of energy
  • 2 cubic yards of landfill space
  • 1,330 pound of sand
  • 433 pound of soda ash
  • 433 pound of limestone
  • 151 pound of feldspar

Glass takes 1,000,000 years to fully degrade in a landfill. Recycled glass take 30% less energy than making glass from raw materials.

The United States throws away enough glass every week to fill a 1,350 square foot building.

Recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to run a 100 watts light bulb for four hours.
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One ton of recycle steel saves:

  • 642 kwh of electricity
  • 76 gallons of oil
  • 10.9 millions BTU of engry
  • 4 cubic yard of the landfill
  • 2500 lb of iron ore

Metal Recycling Saves Energy and Natural Resources 

Recycling scrap metal reduces the substantial amounts of greenhouse gas emissions produced during the various smelting and processing operations used when making metal from virgin ore. At the same time, the amount of energy used is also much smaller. Energy savings using various recycled metals compared to virgin ore is up to:

-- 92 percent for aluminum
-- 90 percent for copper
-- 56 percent for steel

These savings are significant, especially when scaled up to large production capacities. Indeed, according to the U.S.Geological Survey, 60% of steel production comes directly from recycled iron and steel scrap. For copper, the proportion coming from recycled materials reaches 50%. Recycled copper is almost as valuable as new copper, making it a common target for scrap metal thieves.

Metal recycling also conserves natural resources. Recycling one ton of steel conserves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone. Water is also used in great quantities in the manufacturing of many metals.

According to an industry source, through recycling steel the amount of energy conserved would be enough to power 18 million homes for an entire year. Recycling a ton of aluminum conserves up to 8 tons of bauxite ore and 14-megawatt hours of electricity. That figure does not even account for shipping the bauxite from where it is mined, generally in South America. The total amount of energy saved in 2012 by making aluminum from recycled material added up to 76 million megawatt hours of electricity.​

One ton of Plastic saves:

  • 5,774 kwh of energy
  • 685 gallons of oil
  • 98 million BTU of  energy
  • 30 cubic yards of landfill space

Plastic takes up to 1,000 years to degrade in a landfill. Recycled plastic takes 88% less energy than making plastic from raw materials.

Only about 25% of plastic produced in the USA is recycled.

One  ton of recycled cardboard saves:

  • 390 kwh of electricity
  • 46 gallons of oil
  • 6.6 millions BTU of energy

Cardboard and paper make up 41% of the municipal solid waste stream.

Recycled cardboard takes 24% less energy and produces 50% less sulfur dioxide than making cardboard from raw materials.

One ton of recycled paper saves:

  • 4100kwh of electricity
  • 380 gallons of oil
  • 54 millions BTU of energy
  • 4.6 cubic yards of landfill space
  • 7,000 gallons of water
  • 17 trees

Recycle paper takes 60% less energy than making paper from raw materials. It also creates 74% less air pollutions and 35% later water pollution.

Americans throw away 4.5 millions tons of office paper each year. That's enough to build a wall of paper 12 feet high from New York to Los Angeles.

Copper

Copper is one of the most durable and versatile materials known to mankind, copper also happens to be one of the most recyclable metals on Earth. Because it is 100 percent recyclable, recycled copper covers almost 90 percent of the cost of the originally manufactured copper. Approximately 80 percent of all the copper mined is still in active use in the world today. Since it retains over 90 percent of its original value, it is one of the most viable metals for recycling.

Recycling helps to keep the price of copper products lowered, and it saves approximately 15 percent of the energy that would be used to manufacture virgin material. The benefits of recycling copper include lowered levels of energy usage, non-renewable energy usage, greenhouse gas emissions, landfill costs, as well as helping in conservation of copper resources. Recycling scrap copper helps consumers reduce their carbon footprint while they make some money simultaneously. In fact, approximately 50 percent of the copper used in the United States comes from the recycling process. The price of copper fluctuates with each passing year.
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