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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

 
Steel Facts


  • At this time, the NIU 3R Program cannot accept steel or other scrap metals.  If you are not sure about the type of metal your container is, please recycle it.  Waste Management, Inc. will sort the metals out before processing them.
  • About 70% of all metal is used just once and then discarded. The remaining 30% is recycled. After 5 cycles, only one-fourth of 1% of the metal remains in circulation.
  • About 12.3 million tons of steel waste are generated annually in the U.S., overall, about 15.4% of steel in the waste stream is recycled.
  • Making tin cans from recycled steel takes only one-fourth of the energy needed to make them from new steel and created only one-fourth of the water and air pollution created by making cans from new steel.
  • Each year, steel recycling saves the energy equivalent to electrically power about one-fifth of the households in the United States (or about 18 million homes) for one year.
  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day. Every minute, more than 9,000 tin cans are recovered from the trash with magnets.
  • Every day, Americans use enough steel and tin cans to make a steel pipe running from Los Angeles to New York and back again.
  • During the last decade, world steel makers recycled almost 2.5 billion tons of steel.
  • Americans throw away enough steel every year to build all the new cars made in America.
  • The steel from the more than 39 million appliances recycled last year yielded enough steel to build about 160 stadiums the size of the new Pittsburgh Steeler Stadium. More than two appliances were recycled for every NFL fan who attended a regular season game last year.
  • One hundred pounds of recycled steel replace almost 150 lbs. of steel ore. When steel cans were introduced in 1935, they weighted 172 lbs. per thousand; today, they weigh 70 lbs. per thousand.
  • In 1989, enough scrap copper was recycled in the U.S. to supply the wiring and plumbing for every building constructed already that year.
  • Steel cans, including food, paint and aerosol cans, were recycled at a rate of 57.9% in 1999.
  • The industry re-melted more than 18 billion steel cans into new products. That's about 200 cans per every person with internet access in the U.S.