Recycle Aluminum

Recycle Aluminum

Not sure what items around your house are suitable for recycling? This series of pages will cover all materials that an informed layman and consumer should be aware of regarding most commonly known recyclable materials- things like newspaper, Styrofoam, ink cartridges, and plastic water bottles.

We will also discuss some materials that are not widely known to be recyclable like rubber and concrete. There should be special attention given to materials that are poorly understood and/or hard to recycle.

Recycle Aluminum / The Stats

The EPA reports that in 2008, the United States generated nearly 2 million tons of aluminum as containers and packaging, and manufacturers used about 1.4 million tons of aluminum to make durable and nondurable goods.

And that same year Americans discarded about 2.7 million tons of aluminum in MSW after recovery—1.6 percent of total MSW discards.

Recycle Aluminum / Re-metaling Metal

Aluminum recycling is a procedure in which scrap aluminum products can be reutilized in various ways. These products, after their initial production, can provide a wide range of advantages.

In detail, the procedure involves re-melting the metal . The metal, in most of the cases, remains far less expensive as well as energy intensive. This procedure is maintained instead of creating new aluminum through the electrolysis of aluminum oxide, a procedure which includes mining from bauxite ore as well as refining it.

Interestingly, the recycling of scrap aluminum requires only 5% of the total amount of energy that is used for making new aluminum. In almost all the advanced countries of the world, approximately 31% of all aluminum products produced comes from recycled scrap.

Recycle Aluminum / How Is It Done?

This practice is a common practice that has been going on since early part of the last century. During the World War II, as well, the procedure was used extensively.

The procedure of recycling an aluminum product, in general, was a low-profile activity till the late 1960s. At that time around the exploding numbers of aluminum beverage cans finally made the concept of recycling a popular one.

Recycled aluminum products include aircraft, automobiles, bicycles, boats, computers, cookware, gutters, siding, wire, and other innumerable products that demand a strong lightweight material. This material could also help with high thermal conductivity. Since the recycling of aluminum does not damage the structure of the metal, the aluminum product can easily be recycled again and again.

Recycle Aluminum / Why Should We Do It?

The procedure of recycling of aluminum products, in most of the cases, produces major cost saving over the production in comparison to new aluminum products. Interestingly, this rate remains similar when the cost of collection, separation and recycling are considered.

The environmental profits of recycling aluminum is huge. Around 5% of the carbon dioxide gets produced during the procedure of recycling when compared to the production of raw aluminum. There are instances where the 'open cut' mining remains the most often used procedure for obtaining aluminum ore. This invasive process destroys large amounts of the world's natural land.

According to the EPA, the average aluminum can contains 40 percent postconsumer recycled aluminum. Recovering aluminum for recycling saves money and dramatically reduces energy consumption. The aluminum can recycling process saves 92 percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from bauxite ore, according to EPA's WAste Reduction Model (WARM).

Sources

http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/materials/alum.htm
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/waste/calculators/Warm_home.html
http://www.professorshouse.com/your-home/environmentally-friendly/recycling-aluminum-cans.aspx

Find a place to recycle aluminum near you...

Local/Denver http://www.wiserecycling.com/
Australia http://www.aluminium-cans.com.au/RecycleCentre.html

For more information on recycling aluminum near you just input the phrase, recycling aluminum in 'your area' in your search engine search bar. Or go to earth911.com.

Thank you for visiting the Recycle Aluminum page. For more information on other types of materials that can be recycled and about why recycling is important follow these links: