Pledge to Recycle Empty Aerosols on America Recycles Day

Today is America Recycles Day, and on this special day we encourage citizens to take the pledge to recycle more products, including empty aerosol containers. The number of municipalities accepting empty aerosol containers in the U.S. is increasing – making recycling aerosols easier for consumers.  

You can pledge to recycle more by visiting the America Recycles Day site administered by Keep America Beautiful, one of the Consumer Aerosol Product Council’s (CAPCO) partners.  CAPCO is also a sponsor of Recycle-Bowl, a classroom recycling challenge that culminates on America Recycles Day. 

Nearly four billion aerosol cans are produced in the U.S. annually for products ranging from shaving cream to bicycle lubricant.  More than 5,300 municipalities now include aerosol cans in their recycling programs. Most steel aerosol cans feature the “Please Recycle When Empty” logo to indicate they can be safely recycled. Here’s how:

1. Empty the aerosol of its contents through normal use.
2. Check instructions from the local collector to determine if empty aerosols are accepted.
3. Place empty aerosol container in bin along with other recyclables.  

Large cities such as New York City and San Francisco have included empty aerosol cans in their curbside programs for years. CAPCO and the CSPA Aerosol Products Division have been working for 20 years to increase awareness among consumers and to get more municipalities to include aerosol cans in their recycling programs. “Now more than 65 percent of Americans have access to aerosol recycling through curbside pickup, drop off and waste-to-energy recovery programs,” said Doug Fratz, Aerosol Products Division Staff Executive at the Consumer Specialty Products Association, which represents the consumer aerosol industry. “We continue to work toward a day when everyone can easily recycle their aerosol containers.” 

For additional information about aerosol product recycling, go to www.AerosolProducts.org. 

Recycling of Empty Aerosol Products Rises: Work to Increase Awareness Continues

A recent study done for the British Aerosol Manufacturers’ Association (BAMA) showed that in the UK nearly 70% of the population buy/use aerosols and 73% of those are recycling.  In the UK 87% of municipalities accept empty aerosol containers for recycling, this is up dramatically from only 7% accepting them less than two decades ago!

Similarly, the number of municipalities that accept empty aerosol containers in the U.S. is increasing as well.  In a recent webinar sponsored by Keep America Beautiful, Consumer Aerosol Products Council (CAPCO) shared that more than four billion aerosol cans are produced in the U.S. annually and more than 5,200 municipalities include steel aerosol cans in their recycling programs, serving more than 100 million people according to the Steel Recycling Institute (more than 75% of aerosols are steel).

Fortunately, large cities such as New York City and San Francisco have included empty aerosol cans in their curbside programs for years. But there is still work to be done to increase awareness among consumers. It is important for consumers and municipalities to understand that empty aerosol cans are recyclable to increase participation in recycling efforts. The good news is that both steel and aluminum are infinitely recyclable and valuable, so the case for recycling them is strong.

 

For example, steel food cans are currently accepted in 18,239 recycling programs already.  If all those programs also included empty steel aerosol cans, 193 million people would be served—that’s about 2/3 of the U.S. population!

   

CAPCO is an educational non-profit focused on providing the facts about today’s aerosol products, including their recyclability.  To learn more, please visit www.aerosolproducts.org/recycling.

Let’s Be Clear about Today’s Aerosol Products and the Ozone

A recent study has been causing some more confusion about aerosol products. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-led study published on October 2nd reported higher than normal levels of ozone depletion in the Arctic. Traditionally, most of the ozone depletion to date has been tracked in the colder Antarctic.

The primary driver of the ozone loss was colder than average temperatures. The very low temperatures allow chemical reactions with man-made chlorine-based chemicals to take place in the stratosphere that deplete the ozone. However, many of the articles that reference the study, incorrectly blame the use of aerosol products without clarifying that that today’s aerosol products no longer contain the chlorine-based chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and have not in the U.S. since 1978!

While it is true that the chlorine-based chemicals have a long atmospheric lifetime, most of that used 30-50 years ago is no longer in the atmosphere... Today’s aerosol products in the U.S., European Union, and most countries in the developed world no longer have any CFCs, so consumers can continue to use them without concern of adverse effects on the ozone.

What Does “Ozone Warning Day” Mean?

It’s summer time and there are many “Ozone Warning Days” that you might see communicated on the local news, on the radio, or even on highways. Since there is a lot of confusion around the term ozone, we wanted to explain the differences between the two types of ozone.

When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says, ozone is "good up high, bad nearby" what the agency is referring to is Upper Ozone and Ground Level Ozone.

Upper Ozone - or stratospheric ozone, is a particularly active form of oxygen, which filters out much of the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. This ozone layer surrounds the earth high up in the stratosphere. Some stories on stratospheric ozone wrongly advise against using aerosol products. Back in the 1970’s scientists discovered that chemicals called CFC’s (chlorofluorocarbons) were contributing to the depletion of the upper ozone, subsequently; CFCs were banned from consumer aerosol products in 1978, and US aerosol products have not contributed to ozone depletion for over 30 years.

Ground Level Ozone – or tropospheric ozone, is a component of “smog” and can be unhealthy for inhabitants when levels exceed EPA standards. Smog formation requires three ingredients:

1) Sunlight;

2) Nitrogen oxides, which come mostly from anthropogenic (man-made) sources such as automobile exhaust and power plants; and

3) Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), about half of which are naturally occurring and half man-made. "Volatile" means evaporating, and virtually anything that gives off an odor or quickly evaporates into the air is a source of VOCs.

According to the weather section on USATODAY.com this chemical process is describe as such:

When you burn gasoline in a car, a truck, or even a gasoline lawn mower, the stuff coming out of the exhaust pipe includes nitrogen oxides, which are gases. Each nitrogen dioxide molecule is made of one atom of nitrogen and two atoms of oxygen. On a sunny day, air containing nitrogen dioxide turns into a chemistry experiment that's not confined to a test tube.

One of the things that happens is the nitrogen-dioxide sheds one of its oxygen atoms, becoming nitrogen oxide. You can think of single oxygen atoms being lonely and hyperactive (if you like to think of things like atoms in this way.) The single oxygen atoms combine with some of the air's molecular oxygen (consisting of two oxygen atoms), becoming ozone.

Some smog alerts wrongly advise against using consumer products such as aerosol products. The EPA estimates that of the major man-made sources of VOCs, 58 percent are from industrial facilities, 37 percent are from vehicle emissions and 5 percent are from consumer products. The portion of these consumer products packaged in aerosol containers accounts for only a fraction of the 5 percent, and that tiny portion is largely composed of the least reactive—or least smog- forming—type of VOCs.

So, on a hot, sunny day, those ozone warnings are alerting you that air quality may be low and also accurately encouraging you to limit the activities that contribute to worsening the air quality.

Recycle Your Aerosol Cans for Earth Day!

Each year nearly 4 billion aerosol products are produced in North America for a variety of common uses, from loosening a chain on a bike to shaving. Although aerosols have been free of CFCs since 1978, recent data shows that nearly 70% of consumers still believe that aerosol products harm the ozone layer.

Similarly, many consumers are unaware that consumer aerosol cans are recyclable. For example, empty steel cans of all kinds are recycled at a rate of more than 66%; yet, many empty steel aerosol containers are not finding their way to the recycling bins.

According to the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI), more than 94 million Americans have convenient curbside or drop-off access to recycling their empty steel aerosol containers. This means that more than 15 thousand programs accept steel cans, but only one third of those actively publicize their approval of empty aerosol cans. As a result, too many empty steel aerosol cans are taking up landfill space while valuable steel is not being recycled and reused as efficiently as it could be.

CAPCO and SRI are partnering to educate consumers and recycling program coordinators alike about the recyclability of empty steel aerosol containers. Many common products now feature the prominent Steel: “Please Recycle When Empty” logo to remind consumers of the recyclability of the package. Recycling empty steel aerosol containers is as simple as 1, 2, 3:

1. Consumers should empty the aerosol of its contents through normal use.
2. Check instructions for recycling from your local collector to see if empty aerosol cans are accepted for recycling in your municipality.
3. Place empty aerosol containers in bins along with steel food cans and other recyclable content.

The cans will be processed along with other household recycling materials. For single stream (mixed recyclables), the empty steel aerosol packages will be magnetically separated from other recyclables, and once separated, the empty steel packaging (food, aerosol, etc...) will be baled before being sent to steel mills to become a variety of new steel products.

For additional information related to the recycling of empty steel aerosol packaging or to encourage your municipality to begin accepting them, visit the SRI website at recycle-steel.org. To learn more facts and benefits of the aerosol product form, visit AerosolProducts.org.

Upcoming NSTA Science Fair

CAPCO is preparing to attend the annual National Science Teacher’s Association conference in San Francisco from March 10-13th. Last year’s conference had over 15,000 registrants and representatives for the CAPCO booth spoke with over 1000 attendees.

The theme of this year’s conference is: “Celebrating the Joy of Science: Imagine and Create.” CAPCO will be communicating three key messages to teachers at the conference:

-Aerosol Product Technology

-Aerosols and the Environment

-Aerosol Cans are Recyclable

CAPCO has refreshed the look and feel of its teacher’s kit and will be promoting it at this year’s conference. The kit can now be downloaded in sections and its contents are clearly listed on our website.

In addition, CAPCO is partnering with its long-time supporter the Steel Recycling Institute to communicate aerosol product benefits and to remind teachers and consumers that empty consumer aerosol cans are recyclable! We have created a co-sponsored flyer about recycling facts and tips, which we’ll distribute at the booth.

We have a great group of industry experts who have volunteered to work at the booth and share their knowledge about aerosol technology and this unique packaging form. We are looking forward to a successful conference and one more opportunity to communicate the benefits and facts about aerosol products.

Consumer Aerosol Products Receive Unwarranted Blame for Global Warming

A recent Yale University study shows that many Americans falsely believe that aerosol spray products contribute to climate change. The study has received a great deal of media response because it shows that more than half of Americans flunk “Climate 101.” One of the questions on the quiz given to over 2000 participants showed that over two thirds of those surveyed falsely believe that aerosol spray products are a significant contributor to global warming, with some concluding that banning spray cans or "stopping rockets from punching holes in the ozone layer" are effective solutions for climate change. The largest contributor to global warming is increased CO2 from carbon emissions.

One of the major causes for large scale confusion about global warming and climate change are articles and blog entries that are not well-researched, draw incorrect conclusions about data that is unrelated to their claim, and often times result in being very misleading. A recent blog entry on a Discovery Communications blog claims that aerosol spray products are making significant contributions to global warming, but references an article that does not support that claim. The author confused consumer aerosol spray products with “aerosols (sulfates and black carbon)” which are particles in the air that come from burning coal, diesel and biodiesel, not from aerosol spray products. That same author urges users not to use the www.aerosolproducts.org site as a resource because it is “sponsored by industry.” With so much misinformation out there about aerosol products and the environment, there is a need for information from the industry experts. It is in the best interest of the aerosol industry to give consumers accurate information about the technology behind the product form, share proper usage and disposal/recycling information, and correct misinformation about aerosols and environment, when necessary.

In a time when many consumers are striving to “green” many aspects of their lives, it is easy to see how difficult it is to decipher which information sources are factual and credible. As demonstrated from the blog entry above, consumer aerosol products receive an undeserving amount of blame in relation to actual impact that they have on the environment these days. Therefore, CAPCO will continue in its efforts reach more consumers with facts from industry experts.