Alluminium.

Eastern Waste. management authority inc.

Aluminium History.

Aluminium has only been used to make drink cans for about the last 45 years.  Infact we have only been making aluminium itself since the mid 1800's - a very long time after the "Bronze Age" and the "IronAge" when metals were first produced by primitive man

New Aluminium.
Aluminium is made from bauxite - an ore which is found in large reserves in Australia.

Australia is the fifth largest producer of aluminium in the world. Much of this is made into drink cans. Australians consumed drink from over 3 billiion aluminium cans in 2002.

Bauxite is mined from 5 major mines throughout Australia.It is then  transported to one of 7 refineries.  There it is converted to alumina - a fine white powder, which is sent to a smelting plant to extract the pure aluminium. Large ingots (slabs) of aluminium are sent from the smelter to the manufacturers of various aluminium products. Can makers have rolling mills where the aluminium is rolled or pressed very thin, shaped into cans, labelled with the drink name, filled and sealed.

Recycling Aluminium.
Recycling aluminium saves a great deal of the resources that would be used to make a can from bauxite.  Aluminium cans are a great example of how 'recycling saves energy!'  In fact, 20 cans are able to be recycled from the same amount of energy required to make 1 new can from bauxite! Recycling aluminium  saves about 95% of the energy required for producing aluminium from raw resources.

Because of the value of aluminium itself, return rates of used drink cans are generally very good. However, South Australia has a particularly high return rate for aluminium cans due to its Container Deposit Legislation (CDL), which makes each can worth 10 cents at any SA recycling centre. When aluminium cans are returned for recycling they are sorted. This is generally done by hand, however, in some cases an eddy current is used.  This acts rather like a magnet but in the opposite way. Instead of drawing the cans towards it (like a magnet does with steel cans) the eddy current repels the aluminium cans away, and they tumble down into a cage or bailing machine, while the other recyclables just continue on along the conveyor belt.

In South Australia, Aluminium drink cans are often taken to recycling centres due to their value. Many people also put them in their kerbside recycling. If recycled via kerbside collections, they are sorted out at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). Either way, most of SA's soft drink cans are then transported to Statewide Recycling where they go through another process ensuring they are free of contaminants (anything that is not an aluminium can) and are baled. The compact bales of aluminium can are then sent to processing plants where they are melted at about 700 degrees Celsius in a rotary furnace. They are cast into ingots that are sent to rolling mills to become cans again, or to many other manufacturers who use aluminium in their products.

Recycled aluminium could turn up almost anywhere. Bikes, cars, furniture, BBQ's and other household appliances, even aeroplanes contain many aluminium components. The recycled material is just as good as the brand new aluminium that has been made from bauxite, only it is more environmentally friendly!

Why keep taking metals from the ground when we can use what we have already mined over and over?

In 1990 he recovery rate for aluminium cans in Australia was 31%.

In 1993 the recovery rate had grown to 65%.

By 2001 the recovery rate was up to 68.9%, but this still means there are a lot of  cans in Australia being sent to landfill, when they could be recycled.