The Recycle for Cornwall campaign has been developed to raise public awareness of recycling and to provide consumers with a compelling reason to recycle.
Aluminium is the most valuable of all recyclable materials; and both steel and aluminium can be recycled indefinitely with no loss of quality.
How is aluminium recycled?
Once aluminium cans have been sorted and baled they are sent to a reprocessing centre, here the bales are shredded into pieces the size of a 10p piece. Hot air is blown over the shreds to remove any lacquer or liquid and then they are melted in a giant furnace.
Anything that is not aluminium is removed and the molten metal is poured into casts to make ingots of aluminium. These ingots are cut into squares and finally rolled back into sheets of aluminium which can be used to make new cans.
Once steel cans have been sorted and baled they are sent to a steel making plant where the bales are melted down, together with other ingredients; iron ore and limestone.
The resulting liquid metal is poured into a mould and left to cool down. When it's hard enough, it is cut into large blocks. These are taken away to be made into new steel products.
Today's aluminium can requires about 40% less metal than the can made 25 years ago; hence the need for less energy and less raw material per can.
Cans made from aluminium are worth 6 to 20 times more than any other used packaging material.
Recycling one kilogram of aluminium can save up to 8 kilograms of bauxite, four kilograms of chemical products and 14 kilowatt hours of electricity.
An aluminium can is 100% recyclable as there are no labels or covers to be removed.
Anything made of aluminium can be recycled repeatedly: not only cans, but aluminium foil, plates and pie molds.
More Steel Facts
Steel’s magnetic properties make it the easiest packaging material to recover from household waste.
You can make 4 recycled steel cans with the same energy as it takes to make one new one.
Steel scrap is an essential part of the production process and accounts for up to 25% of the raw material used in steel making.
The use of steel scrap does not compromise the quality of the new steel.
Steel cans are often called tin cans because they have a very thin layer of tin to protect the surface of the can.
Around 40% of the world's production of 'new' steel is made from recycled steel (approximately 380 million tonnes per year).
Every tonne of steel packaging recycled makes the following environmental saving: • 1.5 tonnes of iron ore • 0.5 tonnes of coal • 40% of the water required in production • 75% of the energy needed to make steel from virgin material • 1.28 tonnes of solid waste • Reduction of air emission by 86% • Reduction of water pollution by 76%
