• Start recycling |
• Recycle pledge |
• How do you recycle? |
• Posters & Stuff |
• FAQs

Increasing Your Impact | Beyond Bottles

Every time you start your car, turn on a light or open a frosty beverage, you add to your "carbon footprint." That's the total amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases you emit – either directly through your tailpipe or indirectly by using manufactured goods.

But there’s good news: Recycling actually makes your carbon footprint smaller.

Manufacturing aluminum, plastic and glass containers from raw materials requires enormous energy, resulting in massive carbon emissions. But making containers from recycled materials uses far less energy – 95% less in the case of aluminum cans.

This means recycling isn't just doing good. It's also erasing some of the things you do that aren't so good. In the first six months of 2008, Californians recycled 7.6 billion bottles and cans. In terms of energy savings, that's like taking 263,000 cars off the road for a year!