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Why Tin?

Facts about our Tins

Did you know that our beautiful tea tins are not only sexy, but eco-conscious too?

About Steel

You have probably heard many people call a steel can a tin can. Steel cans are often called tin cans because they are usually coated with a thin layer of tin. It’s the tin coating which protects the delicate tea within. Steel is mined from an ore. Iron ore is plentiful but it is usually combined with oxygen or sometimes carbon or sulphur. The iron ore is stripped in a blast furnace to reduce it to pig iron that can then be used in steel production.

Recycle Your Gypsy Tea Tin!

Steel recycling saves a lot of energy. It is much more energy efficient to use steel scrap to make new steel than to mine the iron ore and then smelt it in a blast furnace. It takes about 75 percent less energy to make steel from recycled materials than it does from iron ore. That’s why today’s steel makers always use some steel scrap to make new steel products.

Steel is probably the easiest material to separate from the rest of the solid waste stream. Steel is attracted to magnets, so special magnetic belts can be used to separate steel cans from other recyclables. This is a much more efficient method than the labor-intensive hand-sorting necessary with other recyclables, such as plastics.

After steel scrap is collected from homes, recycling centers, or waste-to-energy plants, it is shipped to one of the companies that buy old steel—steel mills, iron and steel foundries, scrap dealers, and detinners. Detinners remove the layer of tin from old steel cans. This tin is valuable and can be sold.

Steel can recycling follows almost the same process as aluminum can recycling. Steel cans, along with other steel scrap, are melted in a furnace and then poured into casters that continuously roll and flatten the steel into sheets. Recycled steel cans can be made into new cars, girders for buildings, or new food cans. In the U.S., steel cans and other steel products contain at least 25 percent recycled steel, with some containing nearly 100 percent recycled steel.

Like aluminum, steel can also be recycled again and again. It does not lose any of its strength or quality in the recycling process. It can be a never-ending process that continues to save energy and resources. 

Quick Facts About Steel Tin Recycling

  • More than 37 billion steel cans, weighing 2.9 million tons, are annually used in the U.S., 56% are recycled
  • Two million tons of steel cans are landfilled annually
  • Through recycling each year, the steel industry saves enough energy top power 18 million homes
  • Steel Scrap from detinning is either sold to the steel industry or to the copper precipitation industry. Eight detinning plants are currently operating in the U.S.
  • The average family in the United States uses 90 pounds of steel cans per year

Every ton of steel packaging recycled makes the following environmental savings:

  • 1.5 tons of iron ore
  • .5 tons of coal
  • 40% of the water required in production
  • 75% of the energy needed to make steel from virgin materials
  • 1.28 tons of solid waste reduction of air emissions by 86%
  • Reduction of water pollution by 76%