Recycling or Landfill - It's Up To You

By E. Gallagher

Last Updated August 2024

Do you ever think recycling is a waste of time? Think again! 

Let’s consider the aluminum can.

Americans use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year. That’s over 2,500 cans a second! 

So, what would happen if you recycled a soda can in Norfolk?

Each time you place your blue bin on the curb or leave your recycling at a designated drop-off center, it is picked up by a TFC Recycling truck. TFC is Norfolk's third-party recycling contractor and services most of Hampton Roads’ cities.

This truck takes your aluminum can and other recycled items to the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Chesapeake, VA. Here, both people and machines will sort recycled materials by type, separating out any contaminants. The aluminum is then “baled”, or crushed into a large cube which can be sold and transported to another facility for reuse.

At this next facility, the aluminum is melted to create blocks or rods. This block of aluminum is then stretched thin and can be used to create new products like soda cans, construction materials, or even aerospace products!

Once a manufacturer receives recycled aluminum cans, they are filled with soda, shipped to stores, and put back on the shelves so that they can be purchased by you again. This entire process can take as little as 30 days to complete and can save the economy around $800,000,000 a year.

Now let's imagine you placed your empty soda can in the trash instead. What would happen?

Your garbage bin is picked up by the City's Waste Management truck and taken to the Southeastern Public Service Authority (SPSA) transfer station in Norfolk. Here, waste is screened to ensure hazardous waste is separated and properly handled, and trash is compacted. This compacted trash is then sent to our Regional Landfill in Suffolk, VA. 

At the landfill, your soda can would be added to a pile of other waste that would eventually be leveled, compacted again, and covered with dirt. Aluminum can take 80-500 years to fully decompose in a landfill, during which time it can potentially generate harmful gases, such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and ammonia. 

 Our landfill handles waste for Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Franklin, and the counties of Southampton and Isle of Wight. It receives about 2,600,000 pounds of waste every day.

All landfills have a finite amount of space, and many around the country are rapidly filling up. 

When you hold an empty soda can, you have the power to choose if it gets a second life, helping the economy, your community, and the environment, or if it ends up being yet another item taking up space in our landfills. Your choice makes a difference. 

So, what will you do the next time you finish a soda?
 

Want to learn more? 

Click here to learn more about residential recycling in the U.S. 

Click here to watch YouTube videos from TFC Recycling.

Click here to learn about our SPSA Regional Landfill.