How much can you save the enviroment by recycling beer cans?

Question

So, I have this essay question to answer for my Biology test and I really need help to find how much you can save the enviroment.

Please help me, the test is worth 50 percent of my grade.

Answer 1

Yes, it save electricity including...computers. A local school in Orlando did a can drive and raised $1,000 for their science class. I saved a lot of cans for the school from all over. Don't forget that Earth Day is in April.

Answer 2

You may not do much to 'save' the environment, but to recycle aluminum saves about 90% of the energy required to extract aluminum from bauxite ore.  And it takes a LOT of electricity to do that.

Since you are talking about Biology...

Things that produce MORE Carbon Dioxide are MORE GREEN.  CO2 is the basic food for plants in our ecosystem.  Plants today are starved for it - which is why greenhouse growers use CO2 generators to give the plants more of what they need.  From CO2, plants create the oxygen we breathe.  If we want a more green planet, we'll produce more CO2.  

Life loves a greenhouse!

And, that particular gas has very little effect on the atmosphere's heat retention.  Consider that during the 1960s and 1970s, as the CO2 concentrations went up due to industry, the Earth was cooling at an alarmign rate sparking fears of a new Ice Age.  How is that possible?  Because CO2 does very little to trap heat.  The sun's radiation output fluxuates, driving climate change.  That is why this past winter was one of the coldest on record for the past 30 years.  The Sun had almost no sunspots, which are a major part of the change in its energy output.

So, recycling beer cans does a lot to reduce electric consumption that reduces the need for coal or nuclear or other electric generation.

Answer 3

I can't necessarily pin down a quantity for this answer, but look at it like this:

Beer cans (and most other beverage cans) are made from aluminum.  When aluminum is mined, about half of what comes out of the ground will yield aluminum oxide.  From that mass of aluminum oxide, only half of that will yield the pure aluminum which we use for cans, foil, airplanes, etc.  So for every ton of material mined, only about one quarter of that (500 pounds) is usable.  The process is wasteful and polluting, and that's not even counting mining's tendency to destroy the landscape where it takes place.

By comparison, when you recycle aluminum, you already have the pure product; very little work has to be done.  It just gets melted down, processed and returned to the consumer for repeated use.  In fact, any aluminum that you are drinking from right now was very likely somebody else's less than two months ago!

Furthermore, while the U.S. and Canada do produce a significant of aluminum, the largest supplies of mined aluminum come from China, Russia, and Australia.  Not only does this send our money overseas, but it extends the travel distance for the product.  The transport usually involves burning fossil fuels (petroleum or coal) and creates a lot of pollution.

On the other hand, recycled materials are usually transported over short distances, often within the state or county which recycles them.  This reduces the amount of transport pollution, as well as creating jobs for local workers and helping the economy.

Furthermore, aluminum, because of its ability to be easily recycled into a useful product, is one of the biggest moneymakers for recycling plants.  The more money they make, the more they can refine their process to make it more efficient and find new ways to recycle other materials, like plastic and glass, into useful products.

The bottom line is:  recycling aluminum saves the landscape, significantly cuts down on burning fossil fuels, promotes further recycling, and provides the nation with a useful, profitable resource which is pure in form as well as safe and easy to retrieve.

Answer 4

for side income where i live at,in Allentown,pa USA,

i save the cans and when i have saved at least 5 us pounds

(weight only for you yahoo UK members) or more of soda/

beer cans at 65 us cents per lb i earn a min of 3.25 us dollars

for the aluminum cans at a recycling firm here in town.