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.

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.

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 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.

Earth911 is an environmental services company that addresses solutions for products' end-of-life for both businesses and consumers.