Novelis Recycling - Aluminum Recycling

Aluminum Recycling

Calculate Your Community's Impact		Life Cycle of an Aluminum Can
	Use our Recycling Calculator to see how aluminum recycling could make a difference in your neighborhood. Help make every can count!		A used aluminum can can be recycled in as few as 60 days. See interactive videos of each step.

Aluminum is an Infinitely Recyclable Material

The aluminum industry helps make recycling a reality. The aluminum industry has invested millions of dollars in infrastructure development, recycling technology and public education to create a market-driven, efficient and effective recycling system. The industry has proactively supported the establishment of thousands of recycling centers for used aluminum cans, helping to make the recycling ethic a reality in households all across America.

Recycling aluminum saves energy and conserves natural resources. Recycling aluminum saves 95 percent of the energy needed to produce new metal from raw materials. Thus, other emissions such as greenhouse gas emissions are also avoided when aluminum is recycled. Recycling also conserves natural resources by decreasing the demand for raw material required to make primary aluminum from ore. The recycling system serves as an "above ground" mine -- a critical component of the industry's metal supply.

Aluminum is Sustainable

The endless recyclability of cans allows for material sustainability and recycling cans is a simple way to reduce one’s carbon footprint and become an environmental role model, especially because recycled cans become cans over and over again without loss of strength or quality. The superior recycling benefits association with cans enable waste reduction, resource conservation and energy savings.

Making beverage cans from recycled aluminum uses 95% less energy and produces 95% less GHG emissions rather than producing a can from new material.
75% of all aluminum ever produced is still in use.
Aluminum makes cars lighter, saving gasoline, without compromising safety.
Americans throw away $2 billion worth of energy every year by not recycling cans.
Aluminum can help make homes more energy efficient and is part of the green building revolution.

Aluminum Beverage Can Recycling

The current recycling rate for aluminum cans is 51 percent in the U. S., which is the highest recycling rate of any packaging material. This track record of performance has been driven by the unmatched intrinsic value of aluminum. Aluminum cans are endlessly recyclable. They can be recycled forever without loss of strength or quality.

Recycling aluminum cans reduces waste going to landfills.
Because of the high value of aluminum and the subsequent high recycling rates, aluminum cans are diverted from landfills. Aluminum cans make up less than two percent of solid waste in landfills. When it comes to recycling, aluminum is a solid value, not a solid waste.

Aluminum beverage cans are the most valuable packaging material. The industry pays around $1 billion annually to recyclers, providing a financial mainstay for countless non-profit groups, civic organizations, communities and individuals.

Aluminum subsidizes less valuable packaging recyclables. The aluminum can is the cornerstone of recycling programs across the country. It is the only packaging material that more than covers its own cost of collection and processing.

Aluminum cans contain recycled content.
Nearly half of the aluminum in each can is recycled material. This is the highest recycled content percentage of all packaging material. A can, emptied by a consumer, can be recycled, remade, refilled and returned to a grocer's shelf in as few as 60 days. The aluminum can is recycled in a closed loop system -- a can to a can to a can -- without any degradation in quality or value.

Current State of Recycling

The aluminum industry is currently trying to increase the industry’s recycling rate for used aluminum beverage containers to 75% by 2015. Today, the aluminum industry recovers approximately 54% of the aluminum containers produced in the U.S. While aluminum cans are already the most widely recycled beverage container in the country, each year Americans still discard over 50 billion aluminum cans which end up in landfills.