Recycling Awesome Aluminum

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process. Our used aluminum merely needs to be melted into more aluminum. We have hundreds of aluminum recycling plants spread across 31 states and two Canadian provinces that use one-fifteenth the energy of bauxite ore smelting plants. According to “Wasted,” “if you drink a soda today and throw the can in your recycling bin, odds are someone else will be drinking from that same aluminum in just two months.”

In the United States, only 40 percent of the aluminum used is recycled while the need for aluminum keeps rising especially for the long-term use in infrastructure and home and commercial construction. Think of the benefits if that 40 percent was substantially increased. Think of the benefits to the climate, the money saved and the jobs generated!

Finally, we have to consider how to increase the recycling of aluminum. Remember when cars didn’t have cup holders? How about making standard trash and recycling receptacles in all vehicles?

A national bottle bill would be very welcome; presently only 10 states have bottle bills that vary from state to state. If there were a national bottle bill, increasing the deposit on all cans and bottles to 25 cents would surely give people pause before trashing them. This would be difficult to enact because the beverage industry has historically opposed bottle deposits and has funded campaigns to discourage such laws.

Several European countries have remarkably high return rates on bottles and cans through “deposit return schemes” running between 13 and 30 cents depending on the size of the container. Norway is a leader in this regard attracting attention from other countries as to how their system can be duplicated. The political will to adopt such “schemes” here in the United States is slowly trending in the European direction despite a voter base that presently prefers freedom from regulation.

In the meantime, we could make roadside clean up a year-round volunteer activity with recognition going to participants who do this exceptional public service. Also, we need to promote with consistency the high value and importance of recycling.

Aluminum is awesome! Let’s recycle it, conserve it and respect the process of making it.