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The Effects of Throwing Away Cans

There are multiple effects of throwing away cans. Cans are made of aluminum, which was manufactured at a rate of 1.8 million tons in 2009 in the United States alone. Recycling aluminum cans reduces the amount of resources required to make them. These resources include but are not limited to oil, electricity and Bauxite.

  1. Wasted Space

    • According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans discarded 2.7 million tons of aluminum in 2009. Nearly 1.5 million tons of this aluminum came from beer and soft drink cans. Almost half of those cans were not recycled and are currently filling up landfills taking up land that could be enjoyed by Americans, rather than polluted.

    Land Destruction

    • To produce 1 ton of aluminum, 5 tons of Bauxite ore is required. The mining of the Bauxite ore destroys forests, pollutes water by increasing turbidity and threatens wildlife. Aluminum is 100 percent recyclable. If people were to recycle all of the cans they use, rather than throw them away, the amount of destruction caused by Bauxite mining could be drastically decreased.

    Electricity Waste

    • Approximately 3 percent of the electricity produced on earth is used to manufacture aluminum cans. While electricity is also used to recycle the world's cans, nearly 1 percent of the 3 percent use could be eliminated if cans were recycled rather than thrown away.

    Gas and Oil waste

    • One aluminum can is equivalent to a half of a can full of gasoline when considering the amount of gas used to make that can. Throwing away aluminum cans is in effect the same as tossing out gasoline that could be used to power cars.

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