Aluminum foil recycling info by ablison.com

Aluminum recyclable tricks by ablison.com? All in all, the energy it takes to replace all of the aluminum cans wasted every year in the United States alone is equivalent to 16 million barrels of oil, enough to keep a million cars on the road for a year. If all those discarded cans were recycled every year, the electricity saved could power 1.3 million American homes. If you consider how far that energy could go in powering compact-fluorescent (CFL) or light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, or the new energy-efficient laptops, the costs really start to mount up.

How is aluminum foil made? Aluminum foil is made of sheets of aluminum that are rolled very, very thin. Those sheets are wound onto a cardboard tube and stored in a cardboard box until you are ready to use them. The vast majority of aluminum foil manufactured in the United States is used to wrap food at home or in food service. Here a few fun facts about aluminum foil from the Aluminum Association: It was used in candy wrappers as early as 1913, when Life Savers were wrapped in sheets of foil. About 7 billion containers of aluminum foil are produced every year. That equals 220 containers every second. Aluminum is a great conductor of heat. If you cover a pan with aluminum foil and leave it in the oven for a long time, the foil will cool much faster than glass or steel once you pull the pan out of the oven. That makes it easy to pull back a corner to check on your food – although, then you have to be careful of hot steam. Aluminum foil is great in the kitchen, but it is also used in insulation, electronics and for art and decorative purposes.

Can I recycle aluminum foil for money? No. Even though it’s made from the same material as aluminum cans, which is one of the easiest materials to recycle for money, aluminum foil is too often used for food storage and not worth recyclers paying for it. Even if you find a company willing to recycle it for money, aluminum foil is so light that you’d have to collect a huge quantity to receive anything more than a few dollars. Discover extra details at is foil recyclable.

While most recycled aluminum is in the form of cans, aluminum foil is technically recyclable, but there’s a catch: It needs to be clean — that is, free of food residue, as grease or food residue can contaminate the other recyclables during the recycling process. In part because of the issues with contamination, and the reality that most people are unlikely to rinse their aluminum foil before recycling it, some waste haulers will not accept aluminum foil for recycling; the damage soiled aluminum foil does to other recyclables can outweigh the benefit of trying to recycle the aluminum foil.

Putting lightweight, recycled aluminum into cars makes them lighter and more efficient, as well. In 2002 the average car contained 220 to 265 lbs. of aluminum. As of 2011, cars contain an average of 265 to 330 lbs. of aluminum. (see References 4). Lighter, more efficient cars save fossil fuels. Recycling Aluminum Helps Satisfy an Increasing Demand! Manufacturers are also becoming more efficient in their use of aluminum. Today’s aluminum can weighs .0466 oz., which is more than 15 percent lighter than a can made in 1993. Discover even more info at https://www.ablison.com/how-to-recycle-aluminum-foil-and-is-it-biodegradable/.