Aluminum recycling tips

Aluminum foil recycle recommendations? Aluminum Recycling Helps Local Communities: Every year, the aluminum industry pays out close to a billion dollars for recycled aluminum cans — money that can go to support organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, as well as local schools and churches that sponsor can drive or ongoing aluminum recycling programs. How to Increase Aluminum Recycling: One simple and effective way to increase aluminum recycling is for governments to require consumers to pay a refundable deposit on all beverage containers sold in their jurisdictions. U.S. states that have container deposit laws (or “bottle bills”) recycle between 75% and 95% of all aluminum cans sold. States without deposit laws only recycle about 35% of their aluminum cans.

Keep in mind that several food products come with aluminum foil attached. Many yogurt containers have aluminum foil over the lids. K-cups also have aluminum foil lids. If you can recycle sheets of aluminum foil, chances are high you can recycle these items as well. Check with your recycling company to see if they can take other types of clean aluminum food storage products, like pie pans and turkey roasters, too. I reuse my clean aluminum foil whenever possible. Pieces with absolutely no food on them get folded up and put in the fridge until I need them next time. Pieces with food on them stay on my large pan until I am ready to put leftovers on a smaller plate. At that point, the foil can still be used to cover the plate.

Foil is made from the same material as soda cans (aluminum), but since it’s most often contaminated with food waste or combined with plastic (like with yogurt tops), there’s no guarantee you can recycle it with your aluminum cans. You want to make sure that aluminum foil is as clean as possible before recycling. While burns and holes won’t affect the recycling market, you’ll want to remove any meats or sauces from the foil. Find additional information on is aluminum biodegradable.

While most recycled aluminum is in the form of cans, aluminum foil is technically recyclable, but there’s a catch: It needs to be clean — that is, free of food residue, as grease or food residue can contaminate the other recyclables during the recycling process. In part because of the issues with contamination, and the reality that most people are unlikely to rinse their aluminum foil before recycling it, some waste haulers will not accept aluminum foil for recycling; the damage soiled aluminum foil does to other recyclables can outweigh the benefit of trying to recycle the aluminum foil.

Aluminum Recycling Saves Energy! Discarded aluminum beverage cans are often recycled right back into new cans. Used beverage containers are the largest component of aluminum scrap. Most of these are recycled back into cans. The automotive industry is the second-largest user of recovered aluminum. According to Steve Larkin, president of the Aluminum Association, recycling old cans into new ones uses 95 percent less energy and produces 95 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than producing new cans entirely from scratch. In fact, the recovered aluminum processed in a typical year saves the energy equivalent of 1.3 billion gallons of gasoline. Discover even more information on https://www.ablison.com/how-to-recycle-aluminum-foil-and-is-it-biodegradable/.