Energy Costs and Conservation Facts

Aluminum

• Recycled aluminum saves 95 percent energy versus virgin aluminum; recycling of one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hour.
• Recycled aluminum reduces pollution by 95 percent.
• Four pounds of bauxite are saved for every pound of aluminum recycled.
• Enough aluminum is thrown away to rebuild our commercial air fleet four times every year.

Glass

• Recycled glass saves 50 percent energy versus virgin glass.
• Recycling of one glass container saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for four hours.
• Recycled glass generates 20 percent less air pollution and 50 percent less water pollution.
• One ton of glass made from 50 percent recycled materials saves 250 pounds of mining waste.
• Glass can be reused an infinite number of times; over 41 billion glass containers are made each year.

Paper

• Recycled paper saves 60 percent energy versus virgin paper.
• Recycled paper generates 95 percent less air pollution: each ton saves 60 pounds of air pollution.
• Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees and 7,000 gallons of water.
• Every year, enough paper is thrown away to make a 12-foot wall from New York to California.
• Production of recycled paper uses 80 percent less water, 65 percent less energy and produces 95 percent less air pollution than virgin paper production.
• If offices throughout the country increased the rate of two-sided photocopying from the 1991 figure of 20 percent to 60 percent, they could save the equivalent of about 15 million trees.

Plastic

• Plastic milk containers are now only half the weight that they were in 1960.
• If we recycled every plastic bottle we used, we would keep two billion tons of plastic out of landfills.
• According to the U.S. EPA, recycling a pound of PET saves approximately 12,000 BTUs.
• We use enough plastic wrap to wrap all of Texas every year.