73% of the National production is recycled. In 1998, the rate was 65%. Brazilian numbers exceed industrialized Countries such as England (29%) and Germany (35%). The United States recover 63% and Japan recycles 74% of the cans.

The aluminum can is the most valuable recyclable material. The price paid for a ton varies from R$ 750 to R$ 1,500 - one kilogram is equal to 67 cans and is ten times more valuable than a kilogram of paper. The consumer receives a bonus in the collection centers (supermarkets) and may discount it in a value corresponding to the number of cans delivered for recycling. Some campaigns promote the exchange of cans for equipment that is useful to schools and charitable entities - 5.6 thousand cans are worth a wall fan, 181 thousand, a photocopier.

One kilogram is equal to 67 cans 

Aluminum can is basically used as a beverage container. Each Brazilian consumes an average 25 cans per year, a volume that is quite inferior to the North-American's, which is 375. Besides reducing the waste dumped in landfills, recycling provides a significant energy gain. The recycling of one ton of cans requires 5% of the energy required to produce the same amount of aluminum by the primary process. It means that each recycled can saves electric power equivalent to the consumption of a TV set in three hours. Recycling prevents the extraction of bauxite, the mineral processed to manufacture aluminum, which is turned into aluminum alloy. Each ton of the metal requires five tons of the ore.

In Brazil, aluminum cans correspond to less than 1% of the urban waste. In the United States, those containers represent around 1% of the waste - 500 thousand tons per year.

Aluminum cans emerged in the North-American market in 1963, but the recycling programs started in 1968 in the United States, returning to production half ton of aluminum per year. Fifteen years later, that volume was recycled per day. Technologic improvements have helped developing the market: 25 years ago, it was possible to make forty-two 350 ml cans with one kilogram of recycled aluminum. Today, the industry is able to produce 62 cans with the same amount of material, increasing the productivity in 47%. Collection campaigns have multiplied and, currently, 10 million Americans take an active part in the collection programs.

In Brazil, empty cans have been blended for a long time with other aluminum scrap and fused for the production of pans and other household utensils, for instance. In 1991, a company launched the first Brazilian recycling program for aluminum. In five years, over 22 tons were collected (460 tons per month, in average), with the participation of 1.2 million people, contributing to the recycled total of 2.5 billion cans per year. The program utilizes machines known as "can-eaters", which press the material, reducing its size in order to make bales that are forwarded to recycling.

CONTAMINATION

The cans blended with the garbage may be contaminated by organic matter, excessive humidity, plastics, glass, sand and other metals, impairing their recovery for better uses. Printing inks on the packages are destroyed in the casting ovens during the aluminum reprocessing and, this way, they do not impair its recycling.

STRICT RAW MATERIAL SPECIFICATIONS

Scrap cannot contain iron. The magnet test is the best technique to ensure the absence of that material. It is also possible to make a safer identification and selection by means of parameters such as colors, weight and chemical tests. Sometimes, dishonest merchants place other metals inside the cans to increase their weight and, in consequence, their price. It is not necessary to separate the materials by size or remove the lid, as it happens with other containers.

REDUCTION IN THE GENERATION SOURCE

Aluminum cans are very light containers. In the last 20 years, the thickness of aluminum containers decreased around 30%.

Composting

The material is not compostable. For that reason, it must be removed from the waste by manual or mechanical processes before being sent to composting.

Incineration

Aluminum fuses at 660° C. According to the temperature, its burning may generate volatile organic compounds from paints or varnishes and particled material, or turn the material into an alloy or aluminum oxide. 

Landfill

Aluminum containers degrade partially in landfills due to the existence of an oxide layer on their surface.

Back to the origins

After collection, empty aluminum cans are pressed by special presses, some of them computerized, which provide a ticket with the value related to the amount delivered. The material is baled by scrap collectors, scrap collectors cooperatives, supermarkets and schools and sent to casting industries. In their ovens, the cans are melted and turned into aluminum ingots that are sold to the manufacturers of aluminum blades who, on their turn, sell the plates to the industries of cans. The material may be recycled countless times without losing none of its characteristics.

With the evolution of this process, a can of beverage may be placed on the supermarket shelf, sold, consumed, recycled, turned into a new can, filled up, sold and placed again on the supermarket shelf in just 42 days.