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To contact us:
Phone:
815-753-0352
Fax:
815-753-6290

3R Program Physical Plant Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL 60115

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Aluminum Facts


  • NIU 3R Program collects pop tabs for the One Step At A Time camp.  If you would like more information on this and other charity collections, click here.
  • Every minute of every day over 120,000 aluminum cans are recycled in the U.S.
  • Recycling aluminum results in 95%less air pollution and 97%less water pollution than producing aluminum from natural resources.
  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy that would be required to mine bauxite ore and extract alumina, the raw materials needed to manufacturer aluminum.
  • For each pound of aluminum recycled, you eliminate the need to mine four pounds of bauxite ore.
  • Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves the equivalent in energy of 2,350 gallons of gasoline. This is equivalent to the amount of electricity used by the typical home over a period of 10 years.
  • One recycled aluminum can saves enough electricity to operate TV for 3 hours.
  • Using recycled aluminum beverage cans to produce new cans allows the aluminum can industry to make up to 20 times more cans for the same amount of energy.
  • If aluminum beverage cans were used to build aircraft carriers, then 14 could have been built in 1993 from the 1,008,133 tons of cans recycled.
  • The aluminum beverage can returns to the grocer's shelf as a new, filled can in as little as 90 days after    collection, re-melting, rolling, manufacturing and distribution. Consumers could purchase the same recycled aluminum can from a grocer's shelf every 13 weeks or 4 times a year.
  • The average American family recycles 150 six-packs of aluminum cans a year.
  • Used aluminum cans are melted down into ingots which can weigh as much as 30,000 tons. That's enough aluminum to make 1.6 million cans.
  • When introduced in the early 1960's, 1,000 aluminum beverage cans weighed about 55 lbs. Today, through improved design, 1,000 aluminum beverage cans weigh less than 35 lbs. This is a significant reduction in raw materials use and in wasted to be recycled.
  • According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), aluminum cans represent less than 1% of the nation's solid waste stream.
  • Recycling has created an estimated 30,000 jobs since 1970. In 1985, an estimated 2 million aluminum can collectors earned over 200 million dollars for their recycling efforts.
  • To make a ton of aluminum from raw material, we have to treat and dispose of 3,290 lbs. of red mud, 2,900 lbs. of carbon dioxide, 81 lbs. of air pollutants and 789 lbs. of solid wastes.