Recycling Rate for Aluminum Cans in Sweden and the U.S. (1984-2004)
The Swedes have an impressive over 80% aluminum can recycling rate, which makes our US efforts look comparatively weak, at a rate of under 50% that's been backsliding from a high of almost 60% in 1992. Let's get with it!
Related graphs:
Recycling Rate for PET Plastic Bottles in Sweden and U.S. (1984-2004)
Side-by-side comparison of Sweden and U.S. recycling rates for both aluminum and plastic
Aluminum Can Recycling Rates (1990-2010)
The U.S. aluminum can recycling rate dropped to 45.1% in the year 2004—
twenty percentage points below the 1992 peak of 65%.
NOTE: Recycling rates have been adjusted to reflect imported used beverage cans recycled in the U.S. but not produced or sold in the United States. In a letter dated April 7, 1999, Elizabeth Cotsworth, Acting Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste wrote, “…the methodology suggested by the Container Recycling Institute in determining aluminum can recycling rates is consistent with the recycling measurement methodology used by the EPA.” For an explanation of how these rates were calculated, please see our "Calculating Aluminum Recycling Rates" page.
Recycling Rates for PET Plastic and Aluminum in Sweden and the U.S. (2004)
Related graphs:
Recycling Rate for Aluminum in Sweden and U.S. (1984-2004)
Recycling Rate for PET bottles in Sweden and U.S. (1994-2004)
The Current Waste Situation
|
|
It is estimated that 134.1 billion beverage containers were not recycled in 2005--43.6 billion PET bottles, 6.8 HDPE bottles, 55.0 billion aluminum cans, and 28.8 billion glass bottles wasted. That's an increase of nearly 4 billion from 2004's total of 130.3 billion.
Popular Links
|
|
