1. Recycling makes better use of our limited resources.
2. The less virgin materials we use, the less resources we have to extract from the earth, thus reducing the environmental impact of mining.
3. In some cases, less energy is used to make products from recycled materials than virgin materials.
4. Recycling reduces the amount of waste going to landfill (or incineration)

Every tonne of steel packaging recycled makes the following environmental savings:

1.5 tonnes of iron ore
0.5 tonnes of coal
40% of the water required in production
75% of the energy needed to make steel from virgin material
1.28 tonnes of solid waste 
Reduction of air emissions by 86%
Reduction of water pollution by 76%
 
Every year in the UK we use 13 billion steel cans, which if placed end to end would stretch to the moon-three times! About three billion of these cans are made from recycled steel. By using recycled materials we can save 75% of energy needed to make steel from virgin materials. (Source: Steel can Recycling Information Bureau).

A recycled aluminium can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours.

Recycling aluminium saves up to 95% of energy and produces 95% less greenhouse gas emissions than if raw materials are used. (Source: Alupro)

If all the aluminium cans in the UK were recycled there would be 14 million fewer full dustbins each year.

One tree can make 15,000 sheets of A4 paper.

Every tonne of paper recycled saves 15 average size trees, as well as their surrounding habitat and wildlife. (Source: WWF)

About 1.5 million tonnes of glass goes into landfill each year. This is a problem because glass does not rot away.

Every household in the UK uses on average 331 bottles and jars per year. If the average household recycled all their glass they would save enough energy to:-

• Power a 100 watt light bulb for 12,5 days
• Power a computer for 5 days
• Power a colour TV for nearly 4.5 days
• Power a washing machine for 2.5 days

If we collected the 90 million mobile phones that we no longer use, they could be recycled for the metal inside of them. This would equal 18 tonnes of copper, 428,000 ounces of silver and 85,000 ounces of gold (Worth about £49 million!)

In Britain we use around 275,000 tonnes of plastic bottles in the home every year or 15 million bottles a day.

Recycling just one plastic bottle can save the same amount of energy needed to power a 60 watt light bulb for 6 hours.

Every year, an estimated 17.5 billion plastic bags are given away by supermarkets. This is equivalent to over 290 bags for every person in the UK.