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Hi, everyone. My name is Jacie and
I'm the social media coordinator at the
Science Center. And today on the podcast
we're going to be talking about National
Crush Day, which is also known as
Crush a Can Day. This is held
every September 27 and highlights the
importance of recycling. This day is a
reminder that recycling reduces carbon
emissions, saves money, and cuts down on
waste. National Crush Day is an
opportunity for those who care about the
environment to advocate for recycling. So
let's dig into the history of National
Crush Day and why it came to
be in modern society, it's hard to
think of a world without cans. They
are such a common commodity and so
very necessary. They are actually one of
the oldest methods of preserving food
predating Mason jars by several decades.
The origin of cans can be dated
back to 1795, when Napoleon commissioned
12,000 francs to anyone who can devise
a way of preserving food for his
army and navy. After some time, a
Frenchman by the name of Nicholas Alpert
came to the process of sterilization,
which paved the way for canned goods.
Just nine years later, a British merchant
named Peter Durand received a patent from
King George II for preserving food in
tint cans. By 1819, cans were introduced
to New York City and quickly became
very popular in the United States. By
1938, the first canned beer was introduced
by the Kruger Brewing Company of Richmond,
Virginia, called Kruger Cream Ale. And by
the 1960s, the use of tin cans
was common for everything from tuna to
motor oil. This type of can was
popular because it could be easily molded,
could support carbonated pressure, was
lighter, and did not rust. However, by
1970, which was also the first year
Earth Day took place, recycling started to
get more attention. Today in the United
States, 105 784 aluminum cans are
recycled each minute, leading to an
overall recycling rate of nearly 50%, the
highest recycling rate for any beverage
container. Due to the infinite
recyclability of aluminum, 75% of all
aluminum produced is still in circulation.
This means that aluminum cans contain an
average of 73% recycled content. Making a
can from old cans uses 90% less
energy and generates 90% less emissions
compared to producing the same can from
virgin material. So remembering to recycle
your cans actually makes a huge impact.
And one other thing cans were in
space. In 1985, astronauts in outer space
received carbonated beverages in cans for
the first time. So that's pretty cool.
National Crush Day primarily refers to
aluminum cans, but the bigger picture is
to be more conscious of our carbon
footprint and reduce global wastage for a
sustainable future. Activists,
organizations and the government all
participate in campaigns for environmental
sustainability and advocate for small
lifestyle changes that will result in
massive changes. The handy Three R's
reduce, reuse, recycle, or as we know,
there are quite a lot of R's
are the mantra for the day, and
good practices like turning the tap off
while brushing your teeth and using a
metal straw are highly encouraged and
effective. Cleanup drives and fundraisers
are hosted by relevant groups, both at
the local and national levels, which
Harley and Diane actually were at the
International Coastal Cleanup recently,
and that was super awesome. They had
a lot of fun and cleaned up
the beach area, so that was pretty
cool. Before we finish today, I just
wanted to give you a couple facts
by the Numbers so 180,000,000,000 is the
number of aluminum cans produced every
year. 6700 is the number of cans
produced every second enough to go around
the planet every 17 hours. 2% is
the percentage of the world's energy used
spent on producing aluminum. 5% is the
percentage of energy needed to produce new
aluminum from recycled aluminum cans.
Almost 70% is the percentage of aluminum
cans that are recycled. 75% is the
percentage of aluminum produced in history
still in use. 60 is the number
of days it takes for used aluminum
drink cans to be recycled and placed
back on supermarket shelves as new drink
cans. 500 is the number of years
that an aluminum can will stay in
a landfill before it oxidizes. So, as
you can see, based on these numbers,
it's really important to recycle your
aluminum cans and just recycle in general.
We want to be making sure that
we're taking care of our environment as
much as we can in as many
ways as we can. So remember to
recycle your cans and try your best
to keep our planet clean. If you
want to learn more about recycling other
items or reducing your waste and stuff
like that, we did an episode recently
on Earth Day this year as well,
so definitely check that podcast episode
out. But that's all I have for
today's episode. Thank you for listening
and tune in again in two weeks
for next episode. Thank you. Bye. Thanks
for listening to this week's episode of
Cultivate Curiosity.
If you have any questions, feel free
to email us at socialmedia@ecscience.org.
Tune in for our next episode in
two weeks.