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Posts Tagged ‘metal recycling’

Each and every year thousands upon thousands of tons of trash is poured into landfills. While we are in no danger of running short on landfill space, this is expensive in terms of space, time, and energy invested, along with the sheer waste of materials that will not ever be used again.

With that in mind, consider these reasons to keep your aluminum and steel cans out of the landfill by recycling them instead.

– Aluminum which has been recycled is back in use again within 2 months. In contrast, it would take over 200 years for that metal to break down naturally if were just thrown away.

- Metal cans can be recycled for cash at many places. Various states offer five cents for each can given to them, and some recycling centers pay anywhere between a dollar and two dollars per pound of cans recycled.

- There are can crushing machines available that can be used to make the job easier, and you can even make a home-made one for free. Therefore, it is no excuse to say that recycling cans takes up too much space.

– Recycled steel and aluminum are have exactly the same composition as ‘new’ aluminum and steel. Recycled metals are just melted down and then forged into new products, which can then be recycled again when they are finished being used.

– The United States currently uses steel that is more than 65% recycled. This is a good start, but it could definitely be higher. Significant further progress would be made if more people were aware that they can recycle their steel cans.

– The 100,000,000 ‘new’ steel cans produced every day consist of 25% recycled materials. That equates to 25 million reclaimed cans vs. 75 million completely new cans. If people recycled more frequently, that number would soon jump to 50-50 and a great deal of energy and resources would be saved.

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This article has been provided by Can Crusher, a site dedicated to information on crushing cans and recycling.

Most of us don’t think about recycling much past when the driver picks it up or we drop it off at the local recycling center.  Of course, the process of making new material from used items is important, but in the course of everyday life it just doesn’t make it through all of the other concerns in the day.You could schedule a visit to the closest recycling plant and see the recycling process for paper looks like up close and personal.  Most companies are more than willing to share the process and information behind taking scrap paper and making it usable again.The best way to really show people that their efforts matter.  However, it’s a little faster to learn about the recycling paper process by reading about it.

Nothing can happen in the recycling paper process without one very important element.  People willing to take the time and save their paper products are vital to the success of any recycling effort.  The entire process starts with you, the consumer, in other words.Whether you drop your stuff off at the recycling bin or have it picked up, the process can’t start until you become a part of it.

Once the paper makes it to the center, the first step is pulping.  In the recycling process for paper, this means that water is added to large amounts of used paper and agitated to produce pulp.After the paper is sufficiently broken down, the pulp is pushed through a series of screens to separate the larger pieces of contaminants from the useable paper pulp.The somewhat clean paper is then placed in a machine that uses centrifugal cleaning to spin more of the debris from the paper pulp.

The next step in the recycling process for paper is to remove the ink.The water and paper pulp mixture is brought to a flotation treatment.Surfactant is added to the mix and it forces the ink to release from the paper causing it to float to the surface for easy removal.The pulp is now ready to be kneaded and broken into fibers further.  The final washing is done with clean water to get rid of any contaminants or particles that is still hanging on.If the paper is intended to be white, a bleaching process is started by the workers.

The recycling process for paper is then completed with presses to form the new, recycled paper into its proper shape and size.  As you know, recycled paper and paper products usually bear the famous recycling logo so you can pick products that were made with environmentally safe techniques.