Facts and figures

• All steel cans are 100% recyclable. They can be recycled over and over again, into anything from cars and bicycles to more steel cans.
• Steel is the only common metal that will stick to a magnet.
• Millions of steel cans are collected every day by huge magnets that pull them out of dustbin waste.
• Every household uses approximately 600 steel cans a year.
• A Frenchman, Nicolas Appert, invented the steel can in 1810 as a way to preserve food for Napoleon’s army.
• Steel is the most recycled metal in the UK – and in the world.
• The thinnest part of a steel can wall measures only 0.07mm thick - that's thinner than a human hair.
• It would take 1087 steel drinks cans stacked end to end to reach the top of the London Eye - or 2818 to reach the top of the Eiffel Tower.
• In 2005, around 50% per cent of all steel packaging was recycled.
• Steel cans are becoming lighter. The average weight of a soft drinks can is now only 21.4g, compared with 31.2g in 1980.
• Over 2.5 billion cans are recycled in the UK each year – equivalent to the weight of 18,000 double decker buses.
• All steel cans contain up to 25% recycled steel.
• It’s not just food and drink that come in steel cans. Many paint cans, aerosols, biscuit and sweet tins, and bottle tops are made of steel too.
• Recycling one tonne of steel cans saves 1.5 tonnes of iron ore, 0.5 tonnes of coal, 40% of water usage, 75% of the energy and 80% of CO2 emissions.
• Two-thirds of all cans on supermarket shelves are made of steel.
• Recycling seven steel cans saves enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 26 hours.