Assume everyone in the United States consumes one soft drink in an aluminum can every two days.If there are 270 million Americans,estimate how many tons of Aluminum needs to be recycled each year if each can weighs 1/16 pound and one ton = 2000 pounds.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To find the number of aluminum cans consumed in the United States each year, we first need to find the total number of cans consumed per day:
270 million Americans x 1 can per 2 days = 135 million cans per day

To find the total weight of aluminum needed to produce that many cans, we need to find the weight of one day's worth of cans and then multiply by 365 (the number of days in a year):

135 million cans per day x 1/16 pound per can = 8.4375 million pounds per day
8.4375 million pounds per day x 365 days per year = 3.076 billion pounds per year

To convert the weight from pounds to tons, we divide by 2,000 (the number of pounds in a ton):

3.076 billion pounds per year / 2,000 pounds per ton = 1.538 million tons per year

Therefore, the answer is B) 1.5 million tons.

Assume Everyone in the United States Consumes One Soft Drink