Upper Arkansas Recycling:
Aluminum and Tin Recycling Facts
~Your community recycling
program~
All aluminum and tin
collected by Upper Arkansas Recycling is brought to a process center in
Cañon City. The aluminum and tin then undergoes a hand sort.
All tin is removed from the aluminum and placed in a holding area.
The aluminum is then baled into bales that weigh approximately 400-500
pounds each. The tin, which is actually steel with a light tin
overlay, is baled separately into bales that weigh approximately 1,200
pounds each.
The
bales are then shipped to a processing plant where new aluminum cans
will be made from the aluminum. A recycled aluminum can can be
processed and back on the grocery store shelf as a new can in as little
as 60 days!
The
tin can be processed into many different things! Steel-(tin) cans
that you purchase in the grocery store contain approximately 25%
recycled steel!
Aluminum Recycling Facts:
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There
are 29 cans per pound of aluminum, up from 22 in 1972%
of all soft drink cans are made of aluminum.
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99% of
all beer cans and 97% of all soft drink cans are made of
aluminum
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The
average aluminum can in the U.S. contains 40%
post-consumer recycled aluminum
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It
requires only 5% as much energy when a can is made of
recycled aluminum as compared to virgin ore!
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American consumers and industry throw away enough
aluminum to rebuild the entire U.S. commercial air fleet
every 3 months.
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In 1994, 3.1 million tons of
aluminum waste was generated: aluminum containers and
packaging, such as soft drink and beer cans, contributed
2.1 million tons
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Aluminum made up 1.5% of the
total municipal solid waste stream generated in the U.S.
in 1994.
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Approximately 65.5% of aluminum
containers were recycled in the U.S. in 1994. The
overall rate for aluminum packaging was 55.0%.
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Most aluminum recovered from the
waste stream is used to manufacture new cans
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The lifespan of an aluminum can is 6 weeks on
average: that means that the time it takes for a
beverage can to be manufactured, filled, sold, recycled
and remanufactured is 6 weeks on average
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