Aluminum Cans: It’s Okay to Throw Them Away

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I grew up in the age of recycling. If you didn’t recycle you were thought of as a bad person. The motto was, “Everybody recycles, so should you.” Recycle paper, recycle plastic bottles, and recycle aluminum cans. Recycle aluminum cans? Yes it’s true every politician has said we must recycle aluminum cans. It will save the environment and we are running out of aluminum.

This is an inaccuracy. We are not running out of Aluminum. Aluminum makes up most of the Earth’s crust. We have so much aluminum we don’t know what to do with it. What we are running out of is the fuel, coal, oil, natural gas, ability to melt it down into all kinds of productions

In fact it is easier to collect already shaped aluminum cans into new aluminum cans, which, is why we are asked to recycle aluminum cans. But I keep hearing politicians say we are running out of aluminum to make cans and this just isn’t so.

Aluminum is a great commodity and it can be used over and over again, all you have to do is melt it down and remold it. In fact aluminum is such a great metal that it is used not just in making cans but in cars, on mirrors, in planes, in boats, everyplace where aluminum can be used as a light metal. Its ability to not rust through is also good. It will form a protective coating on its outside but leave the inside metal alone, whereas steel and iron will rust straight through.

The only problem is that it is not a very strong metal. If you put a lot of pressure on it will eventually buckle whereas iron and steel will not. Aluminum also has been shown to be a great kitchen helper by being used to cover food dishes in a refrigerator or cook on a tray in an oven

It was even used in wiring of homes but it turned out to not be as good at copper wiring because aluminum had a tendency to fatigue after a few years of use and you would have to pull it all out and replace it at great cost.

But aluminum is not going anywhere. It will continue to be used as a cooking supplement and as a beverage holder and who knows where the next place aluminum will be used.

It’s that good a resource.