WasteWise has collected environmental factoids to help you measure
the impacts of waste prevention and recycling. For more information
refer to the environmental factoid Web sites provided below.
This page contains links to non-EPA Web sites. By listing these
sites, EPA does not endorse the information they contain nor is
EPA responsible for their content or accuracy.
Aluminum
- Recycling aluminum uses less than 5 percent of the energy used
to make the original product.
- Recycling one aluminum beverage can saves enough energy to run
a 100 watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV
for 2 hours.
Plastic
- Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds
of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials.
- Plastics require 100 to 400 years to break down at the landfill.
- Five 2-liter recycled PET bottles produce enough fiberfill to
make a ski jacket.
Glass
- Producing glass from virgin materials requires 30 percent more
energy than producing it from crushed, used glass.
- The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will operate
a 100-watt light bulb for four hours.
- It takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to
break down at the landfill.
Steel
- Tin cans contain 99 percent steel.
- Recycling steel and tin cans saves between 60 and 74 percent
of the energy used to produce them from raw materials.
- According to the Steel Recycling Institute, steel recycling
in the United States saves the energy equivalent to electrical
power for about one-fifth of American households for one year.
- One ton of recycled steel saves the energy equivalent of 3.6
barrels of oil and 1.49 tons of iron ore over the production of
new steel.
Paper
- Producing recycled paper requires about 60 percent of the energy
used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.
- Manufacturing 1 ton of office and computer paper with recycled
paper stock can save between 3,000 and 4,000 kilowatt hours over
the same ton of paper made with virgin wood products.
- Preventing 1 ton of paper waste saves between 15 and 17 mature
trees.
Environmental Factoid Web Sites
American
Forest & Paper Association 
AF&PA's recycling section offers facts and figures on paper
recovery and recycling rates. The Educators
& Students section also provides useful information about
paper recycling.
Recycle
Bits
This Web site contains data on the energy savings achieved through
recycling various materials.
Steel Recycling
The Steel Recycling Institute has gathered facts about steel recycling
in North America.
Recycling Facts
& Trivia
This fact sheet, produced by the Washington State Department of
Ecology, contains information about the natural resources conserved
through recycling.
Facts & F.A.Q's
Keene State College produced this Web page to educate consumers
about how recycling affects the earth.
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