Solid Waste/General Services

Remarkable Recycling Facts

Recycling in Clearwater

Acceptable items are: plastic bottles (with a number 1 or number 2 imprinted on the bottom), steel and aluminum cans, newspaper and mixed paper (anything that tears including junk mail, magazines, catalogs, phone books, envelopes, office paper, wrapping paper, etc.) Cardboard is accepted at our dropoff center only and should not be placed in your bin. The dropoff is located at 1701 N. Hercules Avenue.

Paper (all grades, including newspaper, cardboard and office paper):

• By recycling one ton (2,000 lbs.) of paper, we save: 17 trees; 7,000 gallons of water; 79 gallons of oil; 587 pounds of air pollution; 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space and 4,077 Kilowatt hours of energy.
  
• Around 45% of the paper Americans use each year (over 53 million tons) is recovered for recycling. This is made into a wide variety of goods such as new newsprint, boxes and office paper, paper towels, tissue products, insulation, cereal boxes, molded packaging, hydro-mulch, gypsum wallboard - even compost and kitty litter!
  
• 80% of U.S. papermakers use some recovered fiber in manufacturing, and nearly 200 mills use ONLY recovered paper for their fiber.
  
• The average American uses 650 lbs. of paper per year.
  
• 100 million tons of wood could be saved each year if all that paper was actually recycled!

Sources: American Forest & Paper Association, Inc.; Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Weyerhaeuser

Plastic:

• It only takes 12 20oz. PET bottles to yield enough fiber for an extra-large T-shirt
• Americans go through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
  
• Since 1978, the weight of a soda bottle has been reduced by 29%.
  
• HDPE (#1) and PET (#2) are the most commonly recycled plastics.
  
• Recycling a ton of PET saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.
  
• Half of all polyester carpet manufactured in the US is made from recycled soda bottles.
  
• Recycled plastic is also made into plastic lumber, clothing, flower pots, insulation for sleeping bags & ski jackets, car bumpers and more.

Sources: American Plastics Council, Environmental Defense, NAPCOR

Aluminum:

• Currently 100% of all beverage cans are made from aluminum. Aluminum cans made their first appearance in America in 1953.
  
• We use about 392 cans per person per year.
  
• Aluminum cans typically have a recycled aluminum content of about 55%.
  
• Recycling aluminum saves about 95% of the energy it would take to produce aluminum from its original source, bauxite.
  
• Over 50% of the aluminum cans produced are recycled.
• Every minute of every day, an average of 113,204 aluminum cans are recycled.
• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to run a TV for three hours.
  
• Aluminum recycling is so efficient that it can take as few as 60 days for a can to be collected, melted down and made into a new can sitting on a grocery store shelf.
  
• Recycled aluminum is made into cans, pie pans, house siding, small appliances, lawn furniture; in fact , almost everything aluminum.

Sources: The Aluminum Association, Inc.; National Soft Drink Association

Steel:

• The steel (or "tin") can was invented in England in the early 1800s. Nowadays an increasing amount of steel cans are tin free.
  
• The average American uses 142 steel cans annually.
• Recycling 1 ton of steel conserves 2500 lbs. of iron ore, 1400 lbs. of coal, and 120 lbs. of limestone from natural resources.
• Recycling just one car saves 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,400 pounds of coal and 120 pounds of limestone.
• Through recycling each year, the steel industry saves enough energy to power 18 million homes - one-fifth of the households in the US.
  
• Recycled steel is made into steel cans, building materials, tools - in fact, almost everything steel.

Sources: Steel Recycling Institute; Environmental Protection Agency