GRN Recycle Talk FAQ
Answer
From: Fred Friedman (FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV)
Date: Tue Apr 22 1997 - 05:07:00 EDT 

Date: Tue, 22 Apr 97 10:07 WET DST
From: FRIEDMAN.FRED@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (Fred Friedman)
Subject: Re: Energy conservation due to recycling (Rich)

April 22, 1997

I ve posted information on energy savings from recycling on GRN in the past, so you ought to be able to search for it here. Basically, the Energy Dept s National Renewable Energy Lab put out the definitive study of this in 1992.

Some quick and dirty figures from the trade literature:

Recycled aluminum over virgin aluminum = 49,379 kwh.ton
Recycled copper over virgin copper = 11,805 kwh/ton
Recycled paper = average 4,210 kwh/ton
Recycled rubber - average 6,470 kwh/ton

Recycled newsprint over virgin newsprint = 1.94 million btus per ton
Recycled printing and writing paper over virgin stock = approximately 3.34 million buts per ton
Recycled corrugated paper over virgin corrugated stock - 5.89 million buts per ton.

The New York State Energy R D Authority also is a good source of this sort of information aka NYSERDA, Albany, NY.

Also, see the report of the Institute for Recyclable Materials, Louisiana State Univ, Municipal Solid Waste Energy Recover Report # M-91-1, 4/91

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