Recycling Metal Cans
Follow these guidelines for determining what to recycle and what to put in your regular trash.
Preparation
Cans must be empty. Rinse cans and lids, paper labels are okay to leave on. Put lids in bottom of can and crush if possible.
What to recycle
Recycle aluminum cans, tin/steel cans, aluminum foil, empty steel
aerosol cans, empty paint cans, pie plates, cake pans, metal lids and caps.
What not to recycle
Clothing hangers, propane and compressed gas cylinders/tanks, plumbing parts, engine parts, door knobs and hinges, scrap metals.
Quick Facts
- We trash 800,000 tons of aluminum beverage cans a year, the equivalent to the annual output of 3-4 major primary aluminum smelters.
- Each ton of aluminum cans requires 5 tons of bauxite ore to be strip-mined, crushed, washed, and refined into alumina before it is smelted. The process creates about 5 tons of caustic red mud residue which can seep into surface and groundwater. People and animals have suffered from the effects of bauxite mining in Jamaica, Brazil, Australia, and other tropical areas, she noted.
- 3% of the electricity generated worldwide goes to aluminum.
- At current wasting levels, about 23 billion kilowatt-hours are squandered globally each year through ‘replacement production.’ Had the billions of cans trashed been recycled, the electricity saved could have powered 1.3 million American homes.
- About 95 million tons of greenhouse gases were produced by the global aluminum industry in 2005.
- The average American uses 142 steel cans annually.
- The steel packaging recycled in 2000 would yield enough steel to build 185,000 steel framed homes - the equivalent number of homes in Wyoming.
- Through recycling each year, the steel industry saves enough energy to power 18 million homes - one-fifth of the households in the US.
