Key facts

Cans

• Aluminium cans are lighter than steel, and the base of an aluminium can is shinier. A magnet will stick to a steel can, but it will not stick to an aluminium can;
  
• Making one can from raw materials uses the same amount of energy that it takes to recycle 20 cans;
  
• The average UK household uses around 600 steel cans every year;
  
• Recycled Steel has a very high resale value which is a big incentive not to throw it away;
  
• Steel cans be recycled time and time again, without any loss of quality;
  
• The aluminium drinks can is the world’s most recycled packaging container – worldwide over 50% of aluminium cans are recycled. Recycling one aluminium can saves enough energy to power your TV for three hours.

Plastic

• In the UK we throw away around 455,000 tonnes of plastic bottles every year – equivalent to around 9.1 billion bottles;
  
• It takes just 25 two-litre plastic bottles to make a recycled fleece jacket;
  
• Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours;
  
• Around 11% of our household waste is plastic and 40% of this is plastic bottles;
  
• Every plastic bag buried in landfill takes 500 years to decay. In the UK we use 500 million of these each week;
  
• There are around 500 plastic bottles in a typical bale and you need around 20,000 plastic bottles to make one tonne.