Value of Scrap

Anything made of aluminium can be recycled repeatedly not only cans, but aluminium foil, plates and pie moulds, window frames, garden furniture and automotive components are melted down and used to make similar products again. The recycling of aluminium requires only 5% of the energy to produce secondary metal as compared to primary metal and generates only 5% of the green house gas emissions. Scrap aluminium has significant value and commands good market prices. Aluminium companies have invested in dedicated state of the art secondary metal processing plants to recycle aluminium. In the case of beverage cans, the process uses gas collected from burning off the coating to preheat the material prior to processing. The recycling of aluminium beverage cans eliminates waste. It saves energy, conserves natural resources, reduces the use of city landfills and provides added revenue for recyclers, charities and local town government. The aluminium can is therefore good news for the environment and good for the economy.

Used beverage cans are normally back on supermarket shelves as new beverage cans in 6-8 weeks in those countries which have dedicated can collecting and recycling schemes. The recycling rate for aluminium cans is already above 70% in some countries. Cans made from aluminium are worth 6 to 20 times more than any other used packaging material.

In Europe, the aluminium beverage can meets the minimum targets set in the European directive on Packaging and Waste. Sweden (92 per cent) and Switzerland (88 per cent) are the European can recycling champions. The European average is 40 per cent, a ten per cent increase since 1994.

Recycle Rates

Recycling rates for building and transport applications range from 60-90 per cent in various countries. Just over 11.6 million tonnes of old and new scrap were recycled in 1998 worldwide, which fulfilled close to 40% of the global demand for aluminium. Of this total, 17% came from packaging, 38% from transport, 32% from building and 13% from other products. The aluminium industry is working with the automobile manufacturers to enable easier dismantling of aluminium components from cars in order to improve the sorting and recovery of aluminium. In 1997 over 4.4 million tonnes of scrap were used in the transport sector and the use of aluminium in automobiles is increasing year upon year. Worldwide the future of scrap recycling certainly looks promising, especially with growth of packaging expected in South America, Europe, and Asia, especially China.