Gobble, gobble!

The biggest eating holiday of the year is upon us. Well, maybe Super Bowl Sunday is bigger, but, nonetheless, Thanksgiving is big. It is big in many ways. Not only do you have to break out the sweatpants to make room for the extra indulgences, but your recycle bins are also likely to be busting at the seams. While you hit the malls and the gym the following day, your recycle bin isn’t so lucky.

Every day Americans use 100,000,000 steel cans. On Thanksgiving, we are likely to use around 200,000,000. All of those cans that hold our beloved green beans for the green bean casserole, the cranberry sauce, and the pumpkin for the traditional pumpkin pie are all part of this huge increase.

Here are a few quick facts about this widely used food packaging material:

o   Steel cans make up about 90% of the U.S. food can market.

o   Americans use about 100 million steel cans every day. That's 36.5 billion cans a year.

o   Around 63% of steel cans are recycled, making them the most recycled packaging product in America.

o   Steel cans contain at least 25% recycled steel, but many are made almost entirely of recycled steel.

o   Every minute, approximately 20,000 steel cans are recycled in the United States. Using recycled steel to make new steel saves energy. The steel industry saves enough energy in one year to electrically power 18 million homes for one year.

 

While you hit the malls and the gym the following day, your recycle bin isn’t so lucky. If you don’t have an extra bin, try using some extra cardboard boxes to hold the additional recyclables. Or if you don’t participate in your community’s curbside program, now is a great time to start. Many programs are free or at a very low cost. Another great benefit is that you won’t have to buy additional garbage cans. Or maybe you won’t have to replace the ones you currently have so often if you have an outlet for the recyclables. Prevent your garbage cans from overflowing and give your recycle bin some stretchy pants this holiday season. It’s likely to need the extra room!