Glass and steel used in containers can be recycled over and over. The recycling of aluminum and steel cans, cardboard, glass, newspapers and certain plastics is a growing industry in Pennsylvania. Recyclables kept separate from household waste are collected at recycling programs. Collected materials are further sorted and processed for sale to manufacturers in Pennsylvania and other states. Money earned from the sale of recyclable materials can benefit the individual recycler or help communities and companies offset operating costs for recycling.
Recycling also allows some communities to reduce waste disposal costs.
Society's energy consumption is also reduced by recycling. For example, it requires less energy to make a new glass bottle from a recycled one because recycled glass melts at a lower temperature than the raw materials. Recycling also prolongs the life of the glassmaking equipment. Similarly, making an aluminum can from recycled aluminum uses a fraction of the energy needed to make from bauxite ore. By 1997, nearly nine million people in more than 1,600 communities and all state agencies participated in the recycling effort.