Recycling Aluminum Cans Helps Our Waste Management

Recycling aluminum cans is healthy for our environment as it reduces our pollution and helps our waste management. Collecting these cans and taking them to recycling centers has grown in popularity over the years.

It may seem counter-intuitive that aluminum could be such an environmentally friendly substance, but when recycled, as much as 95% of the energy spent on “virgin ore” is saved. This is significant. Not only is less energy used to get it, but less polluting substances are expelled while processing the ore. Less energy is required to melt recycled aluminum chips.

A significant portion of the aluminum cans are recycled, but even with these benefits, it remains cheaper for aluminum manufacturers in some areas to use new ore due to the high cost of sorting and treating the cans prior to the actual processing operations.

For the post-consumer aluminum that is recycled, it’s shredded into little bits and treated to remove inks that make recycling difficult. About 15% of the weight of the aluminum is lost in the process as ash, but the remaining portion can be processed like that indefinitely without degradation in any of its properties.