-Europe & waste

-Saves resources

-What is it?

• Recycling aluminium
• Recycling paper
• Recycling glass
• Recycling steel
• Recycling plastics

• Recycling aluminium uses 95% less energy than making it from raw ore, creates 95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution
  source: Solid Waste Handbook, quoted by Michigan State University
• Recycling 1 kg of aluminium saves 8 kg of bauxite, 4 kg of chemical products and 14 kWh of electricity.
  source: International Aluminium Institute
• Recycling 1 aluminium can saves enough energy to run a 100-Watt bulb for 20 hours; a computer for 3 hours; or a TV for 2 hours
  source: EPA
• SAS Airlines collect enough aluminium drink cans off flights in a year to make ¾ of the metal needed to build a new McDonnell Douglas MD-90
  source: Alupro
• The production of 1 tonne of primary of aluminium consumes 14.000 kWh. This is as much as the annual average electricity consumption of an household during 4 years.
• In comparison, producing 1 tonne of secondary aluminium only consumes 700kWh.
  source: International Aluminium Institute

Recycling paper

• 1 ton of paper used for recycling saves :
  - around 7 mature trees (average spruce tree grown in Scandinavia, 30 to 60 year old)
  (calculation based on data from Axel Springer Verlag & UPM-Kimmene)
  - 30.000 to 60.000 litters of water
  source: Verband Deutscher Papierfabriken e.V, Printing products and ecology
  - 40% of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp (3,000 and 4,000 kWh compared to 1 tonne of paper made with virgin wood products )
  source: EPA
  - 95% of air pollution
  source: UMASS

• World paper consumption has tripled in the past 30 years
  source:Earthtrends
• EU paper consumption nearly doubled between 1983 and 2001.
  source: CEPI 2001
• Today's annual average consumption of 48 kg/pers conceals wide variations between countries. North America accounts for 1/3 of global consumption and Europe for over a 1/4
  source: IIED
• 1.5 billion m3 of the wood harvested in the world is not used for fuel
• 1/3 of this wood is used to make paper and paper board i.e. Total wood consumption for making paper: 709 million m3
  source: Eco-Economy
• Newspapers, magazines and written advertising = nearly 50% of domestic paper waste production.
• Paper consumption:

• Asia may become the biggest regional paper consumer in the world by 2010. Chinese demand has increased impressively this last years reaching an average 900.000 tonnes fibre imports per month in 2001.
• Paper waste collection rate in 2000 in Europe ranged between 18% (Italy) and 70% (Germany)
  source: CEPI
• If every country recycled as much as Germany does, nearly 1/3 less wood would be needed worldwide to produce paper.
  source: Eco-Economy
• Another argument in favour of waste paper recycling is that more wood remains in the forest and, as a consequence, the potential of natural area -the portion of woodland that can develop independent of human interference- increases.

Recycling glass

• 1 tonne of cullet (glass to be recycled) saves 1.2 tons of virgin raw materials: sand, limestone and soda ash.
  source: Fédération Européenne de Verre d'Emballage ( FEVE ) Glass gazette, Issue 25, 1999;
  British Glass Manufacturers' Confederation
• The energy saving from recycling one bottle will:
  * Power a 100 watt light bulb for 1 to 4 hours
  source: UMASS
  * Power a computer for 25 minutes
  * Power a colour TV for 20 minutes
  * Power a washing machine for 10 minutes
  source: British Glass Manufacturers' Confederation
• Recycling 1 container of glass saves enough energy to light a 100 Watt bulb for 4 hours.
  source: UMASS

Recycling steel

• Recycling steel cans saves between 60 and 74% of energy required to produce them from raw materials
  source: EPA
• 1 tonne of recycled steel saves over the production of new steel:
  1. the equivalent of 3,6 oil barrels of coal and 1,5 tons of iron ores
     source: EPA
  2. 0,5 tons of coal and 18 kg of limestone
     source: UMASS
• 1 kg of steel being recycled saves enough energy to light a 60-watt bulb for 52,8 hours (1 pound - 24 hours)
  source: UMASS
• In the USA, steel recycling saves the energy equivalent to electrical power for about 1/5 of American households for 1 year, according to the Steel Recycling Institute.
  source: EPA

Recycling plastics

• Using recycled material to produce new plastics uses 2/3 of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials
  source: EPA
• recycling 5 PET bottles of 2 liters produce enough fibrefill to make a ski jacket
  source: EPA
• plastics require 100 to 400 years to breakdown at the landfill
  source: EPA