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Are Aluminum Cans Recyclable?

17/9/2020

1 Comment

 
Originally published Aug 12/20 The Reminder. Flin Flon, Mb. Sponsored by North of 53 Consumers Coop.

The answer to this question is yes, absolutely! I wish it was illegal to throw aluminum cans away.
 
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough electricity to run a laptop for five hours.
 
Aluminum can be recycled many times. Aluminum in use today may have been manufactured in the early 20th century.  
 
Aluminum is made from bauxite. It requires huge amounts of electricity. The chemicals used in the process are toxic and can damage the environment.
 
Aluminum cans take 500 years to break down in nature.
 
I was informed in a recent conversation with personnel from Recycle Everywhere that the rate of aluminum can recycling is lagging behind other beverage containers.  They are at 58% return rate as compared to plastic bottles at 77%.
 
Do plastic bottles have a higher return rate because the problem of plastic in the environment is in the news frequently?
 
Is it possible that that people don’t know aluminum cans are recyclable?
 
Our 2016 survey results are puzzling. Aluminum cans seemed to be ignored on the list of items people could mark as recyclable, not recyclable or not sure. No one marked yes. One person marked no and 12 weren’t sure. 429 people completed the survey.
 
Are aluminum cans being taken to Saskatchewan to collect money? This is a problem for us as we do not get the rate of return or the money from selling the aluminum.
 
It is an expensive problem for the Saskatchewan program as the deposit is not paid on beverage containers sold in our community so they lose money.
 
Recycling aluminum cans locally is easy, environmentally friendly and supports local recycling. If you see one get it into a recycling bin.

1 Comment
Braden Bills link
9/3/2023 08:04:22 am

I've got a bunch of old aluminum cans that I don't know what to do with. I had no idea that it takes such a long time for aluminum to break down in nature! I can see how properly recycling it would be important.

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    Deb Odegaard has been with the Flin Flon Community Recycling program since it began  in 1992.  She  became the Administrator in 2013.
    Deb writes a  column 'The Recycling Bin' in The Reminder, Flin Flon's newspaper. Past columns are posted here along with recycling stats  and anything else on her mind. 

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