National Energy Education Development Project states that Americans consume 200 million aluminium and 100,000,000 steel beverage cans per day. It is possible that the nation would drown in metal if it didn’t recycle metal, check this out!
Options seem straightforward: Metals can be burnt in waste-toenergy plants, disposed in landfills or recycled. Recycling is the preferred option for reducing aluminum and other metal waste.
Aluminum and Steel recycling
Aluminum exists only in combination with another element. The alumina that forms when aluminum is smelted or combined together at a reduction factory becomes extremely strong. This is then dissolved with a liquid sodium (or heated) and poured into large pots. While the molten aluminium sinks down to the bottom, a powerful electric current separates it from the oxygen. A large amount of energy is consumed in the reduction process.
The process of making aluminum out of recycled aluminum scrap is far less energy-intensive. National Energy Education Development Project says that according to recycling four cans of aluminum, you save energy equivalent to one cup or gasoline. Due to the decrease in energy, aluminum has a high scrap price. Utilizing recycled aluminum allows manufacturers to conserve both energy and cash.
Recycling Aluminum
Consumers take cans from a supermarket or scrap yard to start the recycled aluminum cycle. Next, aluminum cans are taken to recycling plants. This is where the aluminum gets shredded up and melted down to become an ingot. They are then formed into aluminum sheets and other forms. Then, it is turned into cans again and the cycle continues.
Recycling Steel
In the United States steel is recycled the most. There are vast amounts of steel scraps left over from the demolition and destruction of buildings and cars. Iron ore is more expensive than recycled steel, so most of the steel used today comes from recycled sources.
Aluminum can recycling is done in a similar way to steel can recycling. The scrap steel is then collected either from households, recycling centres or waste to power plants and shipped directly to the scrap processor.
In a melting furnace, the scrap steel is then loaded into casters. These rolled and flattened it into sheets. Recycling steel allows for a multitude of different products. For example, it can be turned into new cars or girders used in buildings. U.S. steel product cans have at least a 25 percent recycling rate, some even up to 100 percent.