With the right processes, aluminum can be infinitely recycled.
In practice, every metric ton of "primary" aluminum produced by electrolysis of alum ores produces ~3.86 tons of "secondary" aluminum with only 5% of the energy input.
Recycling rates, globally, are nearly 80%.
In practice, every metric ton of "primary" aluminum produced by electrolysis of alum ores produces ~3.86 tons of "secondary" aluminum with only 5% of the energy input.
Recycling rates, globally, are nearly 80%.
Comments
Drink cans and pre-consumer industrial scrap each pose different challenges: lacquer/paint must be removed from cans, for example, and industry scrap often contains alloying metals... but these are solvable engineering challenges.
So if you have a can of beer this evening, be sure to tell people you're doing it for the Earth.
See my article here:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/meir/2018/20180417-2nd_law_circular_economy.html