The average person in the United States produces almost five pounds of trash daily. For most people that includes at least a few aluminum cans. Recycling those cans is great success story.

Americans produce over 250-million tons of trash every year. Less than a third of that trash is recycled

Penny Morin is a waste management supervisor in west Texas. She’s trying to improve the numbers. "We recycle over 2000 tons annually in the drop-off programs and then the landfill diverts another 8000 tons there at the landfill," Morin said.

Recycling can make a big difference. Penny says aluminum cans are a great example. Recycled cans can be made with 95 percent less energy. Penny says it’s all about mass impact. "They're just making the effort, saving land space. If one person does it and the next person does it, if you multiply that...then you have a big impact being done."

Aluminum can numbers are indeed big. Americans use 200-million of them every day. Unlike other garbage, aluminum cans very rarely wind up in landfills. They’re simply too valuable to bury.

The energy saved by recycling cans is staggering. Today the energy saved is enough to light a city the size of Pittsburgh for six years.