Why Recycle?
Good for the environment
Recycling helps conserve landfill space, natural resources and energy, and reduces the amount of landfill gas (a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions) that is released into the atmosphere.
Conserves natural resources
- Trees - used to make paper
- Fossil fuels - used to make plastic
- Metals extracted through strip mining
Producing aluminum from scrap instead of bauxite reduces energy use and air pollution by 95%. It also reduces greenhouse gases—recycling 500 tonne of aluminium is equivalent to removing 1,732 cars from the road in one year.
Making paper from discards instead of trees not only saves forests, it reduces energy use by up to three quarters and requires less than half as much water.
Reduces waste
Landfill space is conserved—20% of residential waste is diverted from landfill through the City's recycling programs. Even more is recycled through bottle return depots run by the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation. Edmontonians recycle approximately 10,300 tonnes of aluminum, glass, poly-coated and plastic beverage containers.
For More Information
| Telephone | In Edmonton: 311 Outside Edmonton: 780-442-5311 |
|---|---|
| wasteman@edmonton.ca |
