Revisiting aluminum recycling

January 26, 2016

Today’s Guest Blog is by Jeremy Collins, editor & creator of DoRecycling.com.

Here in the Northeast Recycling Council’s blog there has been a lot of talk about recycling food and other materials. But some of the things that people sometimes neglect to recycle are the containers and packages that the food they are eating comes in. Take aluminum, for example. While overall aluminum recycling in the US is relatively high at 66.7 percent, aluminum beverage and food containers still end up in the trash in numbers far too great.  An estimated $812 million worth of aluminum cans in just one year! So let me remind you why it is so important to recycle aluminum.

Because aluminum is a metal that is great at resisting corrosion, its decomposition time is quite long. Aluminum will stay intact for hundreds of years before it will start to slowly oxidize—meaning that if it ends up in a landfill—or worse, just thrown out somewhere—it will sit there for a very long time. By recycling the aluminum you help ensure that doesn’t happen, so we all can live in an environment a little greener and cleaner.

Moreover, aluminum is a material that doesn't have a limit as to how many times it can be recycled. If we think about how different aluminum objects are made, then you probably already know that they need to be made by pouring liquid aluminum in various casts. That also means that the old aluminum brought to aluminum recycling facilities can easily be melted down into liquid aluminum again, and used to make new things from aluminum. So you really can re-use aluminum again and again. The more we recycle aluminum, the less we need to mine and import bauxite ore for making new aluminum packaging.

Also, aluminum recycling is not only fast but also an extremely cost efficient process. It takes a lot less energy and fewer resources to recycle aluminum into new products than to create aluminum from virgin materials. The production of iron, steel, and aluminum are extremely energy-intensive processes. In fact, just these three industries account for 10% of total manufacturing energy use. The use of recycled aluminum has been a primary driver in energy efficiency within the aluminum industry. Secondary aluminum production—using recycled aluminum to make new aluminum products—requires 90% less energy than primary production using bauxite ore.

To put it another way, recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television for three hours. This means that by recycling aluminum we also help our environment, because we are doing our part to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Making aluminum can recycling easier and more efficient at home, school, and the workplace can help increase recycling. Challenges to increased aluminum recycling include the amount of space it takes to collect aluminum, and the prep time needed to get the aluminum ready for recycling. However, there are ways how you can make this process easier and more enjoyable too.

• Secondly, if you don’t have curbside collection, you can talk to your neighbors (or other businesses) about recycling the aluminum together. That could save you the drive to your closest recycling facility or, if you are the one driving, at least you will save half of the gas money and use less fuel.
• And thirdly you can even earn money from recycling aluminum because it is one of the materials that recycling facilities pay for upon collection. I think that the fact that you can earn money by recycling aluminum—and that you help the planet by doing it—are reasons enough to recycle all our scrap aluminum!

Remember also to recycle aluminum pet food cans. Pet food cans are currently only recycled at a rate of 20 percent (Resource Recycling, April 2015), although they are recyclable in most municipal collection programs. One way to boost pet food can recycling is to start a “Cans for Pets” initiative. Not only do these programs raise awareness on ways to increase aluminum recovery, they help raise needed money for animal shelters.

The author of this article is Jeremy Collins, the creator and main editor of DoRecycling.com. For many years now Jeremy has been interested in living a green and sustainable lifestyle and reflecting these beliefs in his website.

NERC welcomes Guest Blog submissions. To inquire about submitting articles contact Athena Lee Bradley, Projects Manager at athena(at)nerc.org. Disclaimer: Guest blogs represent the opinion of the writers and may not reflect the policy or position of the Northeast Recycling Council, Inc.