Good for the planet:
All–In–One products like Hair + Body Wash reduce packaging and unnecessary products.
Consume only what you need. Simplify where you can. Re-Use where you can. Recycle your can.
Our one material packaging makes recycling simple!
Packages that have multiple material (PET, HDPE, glass, etc.) components (like caps, pumps, springs, and tubes) make recycling difficult if not impossible. We use aluminum for both the bottle and cap because it is the number one recycled / recyclable material.
Recycling 101 - Why Recycle?
While most things can technically be at least partially recycled (or at least re-used), some products and materials are much easier to recycle than others.
Donating your old clothes to a charity or recycling aluminum cans is pretty easy but recycling things like styrofoam or certain plastics can be complicated and may not even be an option where you live.
Most recycling programs do accept the following common items:
- aluminum
- cardboard
- newspaper
- office/printer paper
Recycling helps save natural resources and preserve our planet. By reusing materials and not throwing them away we minimize the need to destroy land by turning it into more landfills. Recycling cuts down on water pollution, protects wildlife, and helps prevent global warming. Financially speaking, recycling is the most cost effective form of waste management and it also provides the most jobs. Our single material aluminum packaging makes it easy to recycle.
Top 10 Reasons to Recycle
1. Good for Our Economy
American companies rely on recycling programs to provide the raw materials they need to make new products.
2. Creates Jobs
Recycling in the U.S. is a $236 billion a year industry. More than 56,000 recycling and reuse enterprises employ 1.1 million workers nationwide.
3. Reduces Waste
The average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day. Most of this garbage goes into to landfills, where it's compacted and buried.
4. Good for Our Environment
Recycling requires far less energy, uses fewer natural resources, and keeps waste from piling up in landfills.
5. Saves Energy
Recycling offers significant energy savings over manufacturing with virgin materials. (Manufacturing with recycled aluminum cans uses 95% less energy.)
6. Preserves Landfill Space
No one wants to live next door to a landfill. Recycling preserves existing landfill space.
7. Prevents Global Warming
In 2000, recycling of solid waste prevented the release of 32.9 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE, the unit of measure for greenhouse gases) into the air.
8. Reduces Water Pollution
Making goods from recycled materials generates far less water pollution than manufacturing from virgin materials.
9. Protects Wildlife
Using recycled materials reduces the need to damage forests, wetlands, rivers and other places essential to wildlife.
10. Creates New Demand
Recycling and buying recycled products creates demand for more recycled products, decreasing waste and helping our economy.
Source: http://www.nrc-recycle.org/
Fun Recyling Facts
- It takes 80-100 years for an aluminum can to decompose (break down) in a landfill.
- Aluminum cans can be recycled into: soda cans, pie plates, license plates, thumbtacks, aluminum foil, and many other items.
- Recycling one aluminum can can save enough energy to power a tv for up to three hours.
- In the year 2000, 13,500 aluminum cans were recycled every minute in California.
- Glass takes over 1,000,000 (one million) years to decompose in a landfill.
- Glass can be recycled into jars, jewelry, bottles, dishes, drinking glasses, coffee mugs and many other items.
- It can take up to 700 years for plastic to decompose (break down) in a landfill.
- PET plastic can be recycled into: clothing, fiberfill for sleeping bags, toys, stuffed animals, rulers and more.
If you know a fun recycling fact, please share it!
Source:http://www.recyclingfacts.org/
The Aluminum Can
The development of the "can" originated in Napoleon’s time around the early 1800s; however, the use of aluminum in beverage containers did not debut until 1965.
The aluminum can is the most valuable beverage container to recycle.
By doing so, its recycling provides environmental and economic benefits to communities and organizations across the country
Source: http://www.earth911.com/
Top Ten Items to Recycle
- Aluminum
- PET Plastic Bottles
- Newspaper
- Corrugated Cardboard
- Steel Cans
- HDPE Plastic Bottles
- Glass Containers
- Magazines
- Mixed Paper
- Computers
Source: http://www.nrc-recycle.org/
Plastic by the Numbers?
Many plastics can be recycled. Plastic recycling faces more challenges than aluminum. Not all plastics are equal. Plastic types must not be mixed for recycling, yet it is impossible to tell one type from another by sight or touch. Even a small amount of the wrong type of plastic can ruin the melt.
The plastic industry has responded to this problem by developing a series numbers seen on the bottom of plastic containers.
These markers do not mean the plastic can be recycled, these makers do not mean the container uses recycled plastic.
Virtually everything made of plastic should be marked with a code. Not all types can actually be recycled. Types 1 and 2 are widely accepted in containers.
One of my favorite resources is Earth 911.
Go to: Earth911.com for what types of plastics can be recycled in your community and where.
The "Garbage Patch"
North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG)
If you cannot see the video, Click Here to view it from the direct source.
Seven Million Tonnes of Plastic Waste are distroying wildlife and the animals that need it to survive. Since 1999 Algalita has been collecting data on plastic pollution in the NPSG. Originally Algalita suspected the "Eastern Garbage Patch" as the area of highest debris accumulation. As more data is collected Algalita and its team of researchers and volunteers are discovering that the boundaries of the original Eastern Garbage Patch are likely an underestimation of the prevalence of plastic pollution in the NPSG.
Click here to learn more about AMRF Plastic Pollution Sampling Methods
A Day in the Life of a Recycled Can
Our aluminum bottles and caps are just like thick beverage (soda, beer, even what some of you call "pop") cans. The following is an excerpt from the ThinkGreen.com website:
Aluminum Cans
On average, Americans drink one beverage from an aluminum can every day. But we recycle just over 50% of the cans we use.
Aluminum–can manufacturers have recently upped the ante and are setting out to recycle 75% of the cans by 2012.
Since the cans are 100% recyclable, we could drastically reduce the energy needed to produce brand new cans simply by recycling our empties.
An aluminum can is able to be returned to the shelf, as a new can, as quickly as 60 days after it’s put into your recycling container.
Coast–to–coast, there are about 10,000 locations that buy aluminum, making it easy for Americans to redeem their used beverage cans for cash.
In fact, recycling aluminum cans is a $1 billion/year industry in this country.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours or to burn a 100–watt light bulb for four hours.
A Day in the Life of a Recycled Can
Customer takes can to a recycling center or puts it into a recycling bin.
The can is transported to a processing facility.
A giant magnet lifts out cans that are made of metals such steel. Since aluminum cans aren’t magnetic, they drop down to a conveyor belt and are gathered.
The aluminum is shredded, washed and turned into aluminum chips.
The chips are melted in a large furnace.
The melted aluminum is poured into molds called "ingots".
The ingots are taken to a factory where they’re melted into rolls of thin, flat sheets.
From the sheets, manufacturers make new products, including new beverage cans, pie pans, license plate frames, and aluminum foil.
Beverage companies fill the cans and deliver them to grocery stores for customers to purchase.
Customers take used cans to a recycling center and the process starts all over again.
Read more at: thinkGreen.com/aluminum-cans/
The Benefits of Metal Recycling: Why Recycle Metal?
Metal Recycling Helps the Economy, the Environment
and Global Trade
By Larry West, About.com
The United States recycles 150 million metric tons of scrap materials annually, including 85 million tons of iron and steel, 5.5 million tons of aluminum, 1.8 million tons of copper, 2 million tons of stainless steel, 1.2 million tons of lead and 420,000 tons of zinc, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). Other metals such as brass, bronze, magnesium and tin are recycled as well.
What are the benefits of recycling the metal?
U.S. Exports Recycled Metal
In 2008, the scrap recycling industry generated $86 billion and supported 85,000 jobs.
The recycled materials that the industry processes into raw material feedstock every year are used for industrial manufacturing around the world.
In 2008, the United States exported $28.6 billion—roughly 44 million metric tons—of scrap commodities, which contributed significantly to U.S. trade balances.
Metal Recycling Saves Energy
Recycling scrap metal reduces greenhouse gas emissions and uses less energy than making metal from virgin ore. The amount of energy saved using various recycled metals compared to virgin ore is up to:
- 92 percent for aluminum
- 90 percent for copper
- 56 percent for steel
Metal Recycling Conserves Natural Resources
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. Recyling a ton of aluminum conserves up to 8 tons of bauxite ore and 14 megawatt hours of electricity.
