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THE I SR I SCRAP YEARBOOK
2016
INSTITUTE OF SCRAP RECYCLING INDUSTRIES, INC.
32
START
Emptycans
arecollected
and sold toa
recycler.
The recycler
presseshundreds
ofcans together
tomakebales,
weighingabout
1000pounds.
Thebalesare
melted to
make large
sheetsof at
aluminum.
The at
sheetsof
aluminum
are sent toa
can factory.
Thecan factory
makesnew
cans from the
recycled
aluminum.
Yournew
cancompletes
the recycling
journey.
Your favorite
beveragearrives
inanewcan
made from this
process.
Aluminum
From One Can to Another
In this process, empty soda pop cans are recycled to make new cans.
Did you know:
• A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf in as little as 60 days.
• If all aluminum scrap processed in the United States were used solely to produce soda
cans, the lined-up cans would stretch 25 million miles – the distance from Earth to
Venus.
• Each year, United States domestically-recycled aluminum cans save the energy
equivalent of 26 million barrels of gasoline – America’s entire gas supply for three days.
• Of an estimated total 700 million tons of aluminum produced in the world since
commercial manufacturing began in the 1880s, about 75% is still in productive use as
secondary rawmaterial.
Source: JASON Learning/ISRI