How Does Recycling Save Energy?

Recycling means to use something again. Newspapers can be used to make new newspapers. Aluminium cans can be used to make new aluminium cans. Glass jars can be used to make new glass jars. Recycling often saves energy and natural resources through conservation.

It almost always takes less energy to make a product from recycled materials than it does to make it from new materials. Using recycled aluminium scrap to make new aluminium cans, for example, uses 95 percent less energy than making aluminium cans from bauxite ore, the raw material used to make aluminium.

Making products from scratch can be both labour intensive and expensive to collect, move and refine the natural resources needed for paper, aluminium, plastic, and so on. By using recycled materials instead of pulling new natural resources, manufacturers can make the same products with less energy and expense. Since recycled materials have already been refined and processed once; the second time around, manufacturing is much less energy-intensive than the first.

By using materials more than once, we conserve natural resources.Natural resources include land, plants, minerals, and water. In the case of paper, recycling saves trees and water. Making a ton of paper from recycled stock saves up to 17 trees and uses 50 percent less water.