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Aluminum
Aluminum cans are lightweight, convenient, portable, and keep beverages cold. Cans are often used to package soda, beer, and other beverages, and account for nearly all of the beverage packaging market for some products. When you throw your aluminum can into the recycling bin, you are contributing to a process that conserves natural resources and saves money compared to manufacturing cans from virgin materials.
Just the Facts
- In 2006, the United States generated nearly 2 million tons of aluminum as containers and packaging, and manufacturers used about 1.3 million tons of aluminum to make durable and nondurable goods.
- The total amount of aluminum in the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream—3.3 million tons—represented 1.3 percent of total MSW generation in 2006. In 1960, aluminum in MSW was only 0.4 percent of MSW generation (340,000 tons).
- The largest source of aluminum in the MSW stream is aluminum used beverage containers (UBCs) and other packaging containers.
- Other sources of aluminum are found in durable and nondurable goods, such as appliances and automobile parts.
- Manufacturers make 99 percent of all beer cans and 97 percent of all soft drink cans from aluminum. Aluminum beer and soft drink containers were recovered at a rate of about 45 percent of generation (about 0.7 million tons) in 2006, and 36 percent of all aluminum in containers and packaging was recovered for recycling in 2006.
- In 2006, Americans discarded about 2.6 million tons of aluminum in MSW after recovery—1.5 percent of total MSW discards.
- Automobiles also contain aluminum, but this aluminum is generally not calculated in measures of MSW generation, recycling, or disposal.
How Aluminum is Made
According to the Aluminum
Association's 
Aluminum: An American Industry In Profile, manufacturers
make aluminum by mining deposits of bauxite ore and refining
it into alumina—one of the base ingredients for aluminum
metal. Alumina and electricity are combined with a molten
electrolyte called cryolite. Direct current electricity is
passed from a consumable carbon anode into the cryolite, splitting
the aluminum oxide into molten aluminum metal and carbon dioxide.
The molten aluminum collects at the bottom of the cell and
is periodically "tapped" into a crucible and cast
into ingots.
The Aluminum Recycling Process
Individuals and haulers can deposit and collect aluminum used beverage containers (UBCs) at the curbside or community drop-off centers. Form there, haulers take the cans to a material recovery facility (MRF), where workers separate aluminum cans from other food and beverage containers. Since most recovered UBCs are processed into new cans, it is important that processors generate only high-quality scrap. The recovered aluminum containers must be free from steel, lead, ferrous materials, bottle caps, plastics, glass, wood, dirt, grease, trash, and other foreign substances. The MRF or a scrap dealer then bales the cans, which brokers and can sheet manufacturers purchase.
Can sheet manufacturers typically have arrangements with toll processors to refine the metal and melt it into ingots. The can sheet manufacturers then melt the ingots into can sheet, make cans, produce lids separately, and then sell the cans back to the beverage industry.
Benefits of Aluminum Recycling
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 95 percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum from bauxite ore, as well as natural resources, according to the Aluminum Association. Making a ton of aluminum cans from virgin ore, or bauxite, uses 229 BTUs of energy. In contrast, producing cans from recycled aluminum uses only 8 BTUs of energy per can.
An aluminum can that is recovered for recycling is back in the consumer stream in a short period of time. It takes about 6 weeks total to manufacture, fill, sell, recycle, and then remanufacture a beverage can. Most of the aluminum recovered from the waste stream is used to manufacture new cans, "closing the loop" for can production.
Markets for Recovered Aluminum
UBCs are the largest component of processed aluminum scrap, with most UBC scrap manufactured back into aluminum cans. According to the North Carolina DENR, however, the demand for aluminum packaging is shrinking because of an increased use of plastics in soda bottles and other beverage packaging applications. To increase aluminum can recovery, the industry is assisting buy-back centers to attract more UBCs to their sites. Diecasts used by the automotive industry constitute the second largest portion of recovered aluminum. In the future, increased demand for fuel-efficient, lightweight cars is expected to make aluminum more popular in automobile manufacturing. For more information, visit EPA's Jobs Through Recycling Web site.
Demand for UBCs and other aluminum scrap depends on the supply and demand for primary aluminum derived from virgin material. The demand for primary aluminum is determined by the domestic and international demand for aluminum ingots and aluminum finished products.
The largest concentration of domestic aluminum consumption is in transportation, containers and packaging, and building and construction. Combined, these three markets account for almost two-thirds of industry consumption. The next largest grouping includes electrical, consumer durables, and machinery and equipment. Exports account for the remainder (about 13 percent), mostly to Canada, Japan, and Mexico. (The latest available data for the following market-specific information, provided by the Aluminum Association, comes from 1999.)
According to a study conducted by the North Carolina DENR, aluminum is a desirable material in the transportation industry because of its relative strength and lightweight properties. The average aluminum content per passenger car increased from 191 pounds in 1991 to 252 pounds in 1996, according to the North Carolina DENR. If the use of aluminum in automobiles continues to grow, then the prosperity of the transportation industry might determine the demand for aluminum.
Source Reduction/Lightweighting
Source reduction is the process of reducing the amount or toxicity of waste generated. Because aluminum can be easily recycled, it has been able to reduce the amount of raw material needed to make the same product. In addition, data from the Aluminum Association shows that the weight of aluminum cans has decreased by 52 percent since 1972—29 cans can be made from a pound of aluminum, up from 22 cans in 1972—and the industry continues lightweighting activities.
More Aluminum Information
The Aluminum Association
is the trade association for producers of primary aluminum,
recyclers and semi-fabricated aluminum products.
The Institute of Scrap Recycling
Industries
is a trade association representing the scrap processing and
recycling industry. It represents 1,400 companies that process,
broker, and industrially consume scrap commodities, including
metals.
The Can Manufacturers
Institute
is the trade association for can manufacturers and their suppliers.
The Container
Recycling Institute
is a nonprofit organization with a goal of educating policy
makers, government officials and the general public on the
impacts of the production and disposal of no-deposit, no-return
beverage containers and advocates producers taking responsibility
for their packaging.
The North
Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Aluminum
Cans and Scrap Commodity Profile (PDF) (8 pp, 173K)
includes a national overview on the markets for recovered
aluminum cans and scrap.
EPA Links
The Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines (CPG) site provides recycled-content recommendations for various aluminum products.
The Jobs Through Recycling (JTR) site provides recycling market development information for state and local officials, sources of technical and financial assistance for recycling businesses, and general information for visitors interested in learning more about the program. Through the commodities pages, users can access pricing information, grant information, and other resources on aluminum recycling.
The Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) site provides guidance on purchasing environmentally preferable aluminum products.
EPA Publications
Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2006 Facts and Figures (EPA530-F-07-030), October 2007. This report describes aluminum and other commodities in terms of the national MSW stream. Find trends in aluminum generation and recovery based on data collected between 1960 and 2006.Markets for Recovered Aluminum (PDF) (32 pp, 690K, about PDF) April 1993. With the renewed interest in recycling, an important issue to consider is the operation of these existing markets and how they would react to policies developed to increase recycling in the United States. This study describes the operation of the markets for scrap aluminum.