We Earthlings: Steel and Paper Recycling

The manufacture of steel and paper consumes tremendous amounts of water. So it’s a good thing that both steel and paper are two of the most-recycled materials. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans recycled 1.1 million tons of steel cans and 46 million tons of paper and paperboard in 2018. Keep up the good work!

Steel, like other metals, can be melted down and reused over and over. Paper has a shorter lifespan because each time it is recycled, the fibers are shortened, making them harder to recycle again. A sheet of copy paper can be recycled approximately five to seven times.

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