Aluminium and steel
Cans make up approximately three per cent of household waste. Drink cans are generally made from aluminium (75 per cent) and food tins are mostly steel coated in a very fine layer of tin. Some cans are a mixture of both. Please remember that foil and aerosols can also be recycled.
Facts and figures
- An average person uses approximately 84 aluminium cans and 240 steel cans/tins each year
- The UK uses approximately 600 million aerosols each year
- Recycling aluminium cans saves up to 95 per cent of the energy needed to make new ones from raw materials. The energy saved from recycling one can could run a TV for three hours
- Usually aluminium cans are recycled back into drinks cans. Steel has various uses including car and fridge components or more tins!
- Technology now allows steel cans to be thinner and lighter but just as strong. In 1980 the average weight of a drinks can was 31.2g, in 2004 it was 21.4g
- In the UK over 2.5 billion steel cans are recycled each year, a saving of 125,000 tonnes of solid waste per year. But, it is estimated that used cans to the value of £22 million per annum remain in the waste stream.
Why should we recycle aluminium and steel?
Recycling tins and cans is important because aluminium and steel can be recycled over and over again without losing its quality. Recycling conserves resources and prevents the environmental impacts of mining raw materials, as well as making huge energy savings. For example, using scrap steel saves up to 75 per cent of the energy needed to make steel from raw materials. Also for every tonne of steel recycled, 1.5 tonnes of iron ore and 0.5 tonnes of coke is conserved, also air emissions are reduced by 85% and water pollution is reduced by 75 per cent.
What happens to the cans I collect?
 | Steel and aluminum cans are taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where they are separated by a magnet (steel can easily be extracted from other materials due to its magnetic properties), baled by type and they are then sold on to reprocessors. |  |
Scrap steel (including cans) is fed into a large furnace where it is melted down at around 1700˚C. Molten iron is added to the furnace and oxygen is blasted in. The hot steel is cast into solid slabs and rolled into coils. | |
Aluminium cans are shredded by hammers into small pieces and hot air is used to remove paint. The shreds are melted in a furnace at 750˚C and the shreds become molten metal which flows into moulds. The metal is cooled to form 26 tonne ingots (enough to make 1.6 million drinks cans!). The ingots are then reheated, 'cold rolled' into sheets at the right thickness and fed through a cupping press to make new cans. |
Further information:
Corus steel has a dedicated learning zone with educational online resources.
Novelis Recycling UK provides information and educational resources regarding aluminium recycling.
SCRIB STEEL CAN RECYCLING INFORMATION BUREAU.
UK Aluminium Packaging Organisation.
Hertfordshire's WasteAware website.