Recycling Program Benefits: New Products

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Recycling Program Benefits New Products
Environmental Savings

• Iowa State University
• February 8, 2007

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Paper Recycling Process

• Upon arrival at the recycling facility, papers
  are cleaned, baled and sold to pulping mills

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New Life of Recycled Paper
White paper will be pulped and turned into more
white paper.
Newspaper will be pulped and turned into a
variety of products ranging from more newspaper
to corrugated cardboard lining to housing
insulation.
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New Life of Recycled Paper
Cardboard boxes will be pulped and turned into
more cardboard.
Mixed paper will be pulped and turned into a
variety of products from corrugated cardboard
lining to cereal boxes to low grade paper.
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Why Recycle Paper?
Conserves natural resources Every ton of
recycled paper saves 17 trees.
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Why Recycle Paper?
Saves energy Recycling 1 ton of paper saves
4,200 kilowatt hoursthats enough to power an
average-sized home for two years!
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Why Recycle Paper?
Protects and conserves our clean water
supplies Every ton of recycled paper conserves
7,000 gallons of water
Thats the equivalent of
nearly 2,000 toilet flushes!
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Why Recycle Paper?
Saves landfill space Every ton of recycled
paper saves 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
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Why Recycle Paper?
Protects and conserves our clean air
Manufacturing 1 ton of paper from virgin wood
pulp creates an additional 60 pounds of air
pollution.
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Plastic Recycling Process

• Upon arrival at the recycling facility, plastics
  are sorted, cleaned, baled and sold to mills

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New Life of Recycled Plastics
Plastics can be turned into clothing, toys,
carpet, park benches, plastic lumber and parking
blocks.
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Why Recycle Plastics?
Five PET bottles yield enough fiber to make an
extra large T-shirt.
Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every
hour.
Recycling 1 ton of plastic milk jugs saves enough
energy to light a home for approximately 1 year.
It takes 35 two-liter PET bottles to produce
enough fiberfill for a sleeping bag.
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Glass Recycling Process

• Upon arrival at the recycling facility, glass is
  crushed, cleaned and sold to mills

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New Life of Recycled Glass
Glass containers are melted and turned into more
glass containers.
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Why Recycle Glass?
Glass is the oldest form of recycled material,
produced by the Egyptians over 3,000 years ago
for jewelry and drinking cups.
Recycling one glass bottle saves enough energy to
light a 100-watt bulb for 4 hours.
Recycled glass is used for new glass containers,
fiberglass insulation, road beds (aggregate),
concrete block and glassphalt (asphalt).
Making glass from recycled materials cuts related
air pollution 20, water pollution 50, and
mining waste 75.
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Steel Can Recycling Process

• Upon arrival at the recycling facility, steel
  cans are cleaned, baled and sold to mills

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New Life of Recycled Steel Cans
Steel cans will be melted and used to make new
steel products including cars, bridges,
lawnmowers, stoves, and construction materials.
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Why Recycle Steel Cans?
The steel industry recycles about 600 cans every
second.
We throw away enough steel every year to build
all the new cars made in America.
The steel industry's annual recycling saves the
equivalent energy to electrically power about 18
million households for a year.
Recycling steel and tin cans saves 74 of the
energy used to produce them from raw materials.
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Aluminum Can Recycling Process

• Upon arrival at the recycling facility, aluminum
  cans are cleaned, baled and sold to mills

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New Life of Aluminum Cans
Aluminum cans are melted and turned into more
aluminum cans. An aluminum can placed in a
recycle bin returns to the grocers shelf as a
new, filled can in less than 60 days.
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Why Recycle Aluminum Cans?
We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans
every year.
The side of an aluminum can is the same thickness
as a human hair.
The average aluminum can contains about 51
recycled material.
By recycling a single aluminum can, we save
enough energy to power a television for up to 3
hours.
An average 113,204 aluminum cans are recycled
every minute.
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Why Recycle?
Saves Money Lowered garbage collection Payment
for recyclable materials
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Why Recycle?
Creates New Jobs Gives new life to materials
otherwise destined for landfill Creates jobs in
recycling and remanufacturing
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Thank you for recycling!
Contact us for more information Erin Novak Mid
America Recycling 2742 East Market St. Des
Moines, IA 50317 Phone [phone] Fax
515-262-2209 midamericarecycling.com