Yes, recycling really does make a difference in many ways. One way is in the amount of energy saved. For example, glass recycling uses energy to re-melt the glass. When glass is originally made, a lot of energy is needed to melt the sand and other minerals, so the energy savings is relatively small, only about 10-15%.
However, metal recycling saves energy because the energy necessary to initially mine and process ores far exceeds that of the energy needed to recycle. Aluminum cans are a good example; they only need to be cleaned and re-melted, resulting in over a 90% energy saving when compare to the energy needed to extract the aluminum from ore.
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