Since 1972, aluminum can manufactures have reduced the amount of metal in each can by 36 per cent, from 48 cans per kilogram to more than 66 per kilogram
Recycling aluminum saves up to 95 percent of the energy required to produce if from raw materials.
Truly recyclable, the aluminum beverage can returns to the grocer's shelf as a new, filled can in as little as 60 days after collection, remelting, rolling, manufacturing, and distribution.
More than 54 percent of a new aluminum can is made from recycled aluminum. By recycling, consumers contribute to producing a quality, recyclable container while cutting costs and reducing the demand on natural resources.
Cans are the beverage package most preferred by the consumers. Recyclability is one reason more than 100 billion aluminum cans were sold in North America in 1995, outpacing sales of glass and plastic bottles.
Only 5 percent of the energy required to make primary aluminum is consumed in recycling. The aluminum beverage can you buy today contains more than 50 percent recycled material. Aluminum does not lose its properties in the recycling process - a can becomes another can, again and again.
In Canada, the latest statistics on recycling estimates annual recycled quantities at more than 45,454,500 kilograms per year.
The wall of an aluminum can is so incredibly thin it almost feels like stiff foil. Although it's no longer a "macho" display of strength to crush a beverage can with one hand, the can wall has a built-in 'column strength' capable of supporting about 250 pounds. Plus, the beverage can withstands more than 90 pounds of internal pressure per square inch - three times the pressure in an average automobile tire.
A single coil of can sheet will produce approximately one million cans with a typical can weighing about 0.48 ounces, (approximately 14 grams).
Aluminum cans are produced in a fraction of a second at rates approaching 2,000 per minute. The making of cans is a highly sophisticated process.
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