For some reason, people think that aerosol cans are bad for the environment. Simon and I have been asked if aerosol cans are safe for the environment a thousand times so I thought it was about time that we just sat down and wrote down why our research proved that they are.
- Fact 1: Since 1978, aerosol propellants do NOT hurt the ozone layer. Consumer aerosol products produced in the U.S have not used chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) since 1978, when they were banned. CFCs were the substance that negatively affected the earth’s ozone layer.
- Fact 2: Aerosol cans are recyclable. About 90 percent of all aerosol cans are made of steel and the remaining 10 percent are made of aluminum. Both types can be recycled. Here are some facts regarding the disposal and recycling of aerosol cans
- Steel is North America’s #1 recycled materials. Each year, more steel is recycled than plastic, glass, paper and aluminum combined. Scrap has become the steel industry’s single largest source of raw material because it is economically advantageous to recycle old steel into new steel.
- All steel containers are made up of an average of 25 percent recycled steel. Using recycled steel for production consumes 65 percent less energy than creating the containers from raw materials. This type of energy savings is enough to light the city of Los Angeles for almost a decade.
- About 19 billion steel containers are recycled and turned into new products each year. This equates to about 600 containers recycled every second.
- Recycling one ton of steel saves about 2.5 tons of iron ore, 1 ton of coal and 40 pounds of limestone. Using recycled steel also assists in cutting down on water usage and the release of air pollution. This is due to the fact that the process for creating steel from scratch utilizes a large amount of resources, where using recycled steel allows the production of containers to bypass the steel creation stage.
- Steel cans magnetic attraction allows steel cans to be more easily separated (for recycling) from other recyclables (such as plastic) or from municipal solid waste.
Clean+Green aerosol products are produced in the United States. Our product packaging is steel and we use nitrogen as the propellant, which is all natural, non toxic and non flammable. When you are ready to dispose of your empty Clean+Green can, please recycle and add to the 19 billion steel containers being recycled each year!
Quincy and Simon