Recycling Explained Through the Life of a Recycled Aluminum Soda Can

Make recycling as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Please explain what I can recycle.

Through continuous advances in recycling technology, you can now recycle more materials than ever. This is a positive because we need to find ways to conserve resources as much as is possible.
Are you finding it difficult to swallow that a soda pop can, or an aluminum food can is quantifiable as a natural resource? Both do qualify! As a nation, the EPA indicates that we generate close to 3.60 million tons of aluminum each year. Of that total, we only recover roughly 0.71 million tons. Apart from an impact on the economy, the ecological savings found when recycling all metals are gigantic.

Aluminum cans:

On average, an American use more than 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans each year. The problem is that we recycle close to 55% of the cans we typically use. Since beverage cans are fully recyclable, we do have a chance to optimize the energy required to manufacture replacement cans just by recycling empty soda cans. A properly structured closed loop recycling system can put recycled cans back on the store shelf in as little as sixty days. The total energy saved in recycling a single can is enough to power a flat panel television for three to four hours.

In the contiguous United States, there are thousands of specialized locations that will either purchase aluminum or accept it for recycling as a service in their sanitation program. Accessibility to centers makes it easy for Americans to integrate recycling into their daily life. In fact, aluminum soda can recycling proves to be a lucrative industry for many businesses.

The life of a recycled aluminum soda can:

• A customer empties an aluminum soda can and puts it into a can recycling bin from Sustainable Transport Packaging.
• The aluminum beverage can is allowed to sit in the recycling bin for a short period while additional cans accumulate.
• The soda can and any additional cans collected are emptied from the bin and transported to a local recycling facility.
• A magnet is used to sort cans out that may be made from steel. Since aluminum is not magnetic, the soda can drops to a belt and is gathered along with other aluminum cans.
• All gathered aluminum soda cans are then shredded, thoroughly cleaned and transformed into aluminum chips.
• The newly produced aluminum chips are loaded into a large furnace for melting.
• The resulting molten aluminum is then poured into ingot molds.
• Ingots are then transported from the recycling center to a facility where they are melted into rolls of thin, flat sheets.
• Manufacturers then produce new soda cans, pie tins and aluminum foil from the flat recycled aluminum sheets.
• Companies fill the aluminum cans again and deliver them to a retail store or a grocery store for customers to buy.
• Consumers begin the process of sending an aluminum beverage can through the recycling process all over again.

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Aluminum Foil and Bakeware
During World War II, Americans saved aluminum foil and even peeled off the silver wrapping from chewing gum wrappers to contribute to the war effort.

Today, we recycle the foil to conserve energy and protect the environment - two other patriotic causes. There are thousands of products made from aluminum. From food wrap to disposable cookware, to the disposable burner bibs you use to keep your stovetop clean, the list goes on and on.

Aluminum can be recycled almost infinitely. The process involves simply re-melting the metal, a process far less costly and energy-intensive than mining the minerals necessary to create new aluminum.>

For example, Americans discarded 460,000 tons of foil in 2010. However, Americans are far more likely to recycle aluminum soda cans than aluminum foil.

Household Hints.

Unlike aluminum cans, foil may have food particles attached, making it harder for recycling facilities to accept. But foil is easy to wipe clean. So reuse it as much as you can, and clean it off before putting it in the recycling bin. Consider buying 100% recycled aluminum foil. You'll be supporting a process that uses five percent less energy than the traditional aluminum foil manufacturing process.

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Steel Cans and Tin Cans (soup cans, veggie cans, coffee cans, etc.)

Most people call them "tin cans," but the containers your green beans come in are mostly made of steel.
The term "tin" comes from the fact that these cans have a micro-thin coating of tin inside, to protect the flavor and prevent the can from corroding.
How can you tell a steel or tin can from an aluminum one? See if a magnet attaches to it. Steel is magnetic, and aluminum is not.

• Steel cans make up about 90% of the U.S. food can market.
• Americans use about 100 million steel cans every day. That's 36.5 billion cans a year.
• About 71% of steel cans are recycled, making them one of the most recycled packaging products in America.
• In addition, steel cans typically contain at least 25% recycled steel, but many are made almost entirely of recycled steel.
• Where does this recycled steel come from? Mainly from scrap metal.
• Recycling steel saves at least 75% of the energy it would take to create steel from raw materials. That's enough energy to power 18 million homes.
• During the recycling process, steel cans (in bales or loose) are fed into the furnaces of a steel mill or foundry. They may be mixed with new steel.
• Some of the new "mini" steel mills manufacture their products from 100% recycled steel.

Steel, tin, and the California Gold Rush.

When you think of the California Gold Rush of the mid-1800s, your first thought may not be of canned goods. But it was the need to supply the gold miners with fruit, meat, and vegetables that gave rise to the demand for canned foods. By the start of the Civil War, around 30 million cans were being produced annually in the United States.