Is there a difference between steel and tin cans?
What many of us refer to as tin cans are actually steel cans. Food cans are made of steel with only a very thin layer of tin on them. In fact, one ton of steel cans only contains 5 to 6 pounds of tin. This is down from about 50 pounds of tin per ton of steel in the 1930s. Despite the decrease, many people still call them tin cans. Despite the small amount of tin, the revenue from the recovered metals is about 1/4 from the tin and 3/4 from the steel. Tin has a higher value per pound and the only domestic source of tin is through recycling processes.
