We only have one earth! How do we want to hand it over to the next generation? With landfills that are full and no clean water? Or do we want to give it to them in better shape than we got it from our ancestors? If we keep throwing things away, sooner or later, we will run out. We need to do our best to be responsible with the limited resources this earth offers so everyone can breathe clean air and drink clean water.
We recycle beverage containers to keep them from polluting our roads and parks. We also recycle beverage containers to recover the energy tied up in those containers. Beverage containers only represent 2% of everything in a landfill, but they take up 8% of the space, and represent 14% of all the energy not recovered.
Every time we recycle an aluminum can, we save lots of electricity. That is because it takes less energy to make a new can from an old one than it does to dig up more material to start over, 95% less to be precise. When you add up all the energy we could save from all the different types of containers, its a lot of energy saved. That energy we save means we have to burn less coal and natural gas, which means cleaner air to breathe.