Recycling in Ohio

Steel Recycling

Steel is America's most recycled material! It's time for consumers to follow the steel industry's lead and take a look at one of the most popular steel products sitting on household shelves across the nation - the steel food, beverage, paint and aerosol can. The steel can is often referred to as "tin" because of the thin layer of tin that is applied to the can. Recycling steel cans reduces the volume of trash we send to Ohio's landfills. It conserves energy and natural resources. And it's simple -- steel's magnetic qualities make it easy to pull from the waste stream.

Although Ohioans are doing a good job of recycling other scrap steel such as cars, appliances and construction materials, it is just as important to recycle steel food, beverage and aerosol cans. Here are some fast facts about steel recycling:

• Steelmakers recycle more than 68 percent of the steel they produce because they rely on scrap steel to produce a high-quality end product. Ohio's steel mills use more than 10 million tons of recycled steel scrap each year.
• Ohio is the second largest steel-producing state in the U.S. and produced 17 percent of the nation's steel in 1994.
• The amount of steel, by weight, recycled annually in the U.S. equals about 1/3 the amount of municipal solid waste landfilled each year.
• In 1995, Ohio consumers used more than 2 billion steel food and beverage cans; about 53 percent were recycled.
• More than 275 communities in Ohio recycle steel cans through curbside collection, and 242 drop-off locations throughout the state collect steel cans for recycling.
• Americans use about 100 million steel cans every day.
• The U.S. food industry uses about 28 billion steel cans each year to package more than 1,500 food products. American-made steel cans contain about 25 percent recycled steel.
• Recycling one ton of steel saves mining 2,500 pounds of iron ore, 1,000 pounds of coal and 40 pounds of limestone.
• The energy conserved by recycling one pound of steel cans is enough to light a 60-watt light bulb for more than one day.