What are the basic procedures for recycling aluminum cans?
Aluminum is often collected in drop-off programs or at curbside. Cans are sorted and consolidated, and crushed or baled for transportation to a recycling facility which melts them down and converts the old aluminum into new products. In some states, “bottle deposit” laws, require a 5 or 10 cents per can deposit when you buy a beverage, and thet you are given the money back when you return the can to the grocery store. Then the grocery store sends the cans back to the distributor, who crushes them and sends them to an aluminum smelter to be melted and have contaminants removed. Aluminum cans are made into new products (such as more cans). A lot of energy is saved while recycling aluminum, more than other materials like paper. It takes a lot of energy to dig up or mine bauxite (aluminum ore) and process it into aluminum. It is just a lot easier to melt down used cans.
