Aluminum Recycling: Why and What to Bring In

Aluminum is present in many items throughout your home, but the most obvious is the aluminum cans that contain your favorite drinks and soda. Overall, the world goes through billions of aluminum cans every year, and only about half of them go to a recycling facility. The manufacturers of each product will have to create new cans from virgin materials, and the old cans will sit in dumpsters and landfills for the decades it takes to decompose metal.

Not only that but the creation of new cans from unused aluminum also produces gasses that are harmful to the environment, including sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide. These fumes contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming and are a significant part of smog and acid rain. Between the gasses and the caustic mud from processing the ore, a lot of damage can happen from processing virgin aluminum.

On the other hand, if you remember to recycle your scrap metal, the aluminum cans provide a sustainable metal. The process of recycling retains the material from the original can, losing very little in the refining process. Within 60 days, the very same can of soda you finished and recycled can be back on the shelf with almost no material lost.

Soda cans are the most plentiful source of aluminum in your house, but you can find aluminum in many places throughout your home.

In the kitchen, the foil you use to cover food is aluminum. Don't buy rolls merely to donate; you won't get a good return off of that method. Rather than throwing it out after use, you can bring it in as part of your load. The kitchen may also have aluminum in any frozen meals in your freezer, or in the pots and pans you use to cook. When they've served their purpose, bring them to the scrap yard. 

Electricity conducts well through aluminum, so your computer, TV, or wiring may include some useful bits of metal. Visit your garage, and you might find anything from baseball bats to old screen doors, bicycle frames to ladders. Any of these can have some aluminum. When the ladder's rungs crack or the bicycles are no longer useable, bring them to a scrap yard for recycling. 

Most households throw away metal every day when that metal could instead go to a recycling plant and find a new purpose. This habit causes large amounts of used metal — that could be recycled — to degrade in the garbage, and it forces companies to smelt more virgin material. Luckily, you can do your part to protect the world when you bring in your metal to a recycling plant. 

If you want to get competitive prices for your scrap metal, aluminum or otherwise, check out Big Daddy Scrap. Our family-owned and -operated business has worked hard to create a hassle-free way for you to recycle your scraps. Customer service and convenience is our top priority, and we've worked hard to develop it over while we’ve been in business. Get in touch today to join us on a recycling journey into the future.