Recycling

That aluminium can be economically recycled, and has been since it became commercially available more than a century ago, is a well established fact. As a used material it retains a positive monetary value, unlike many other packaging materials which can cost money for disposal. The metal remains substantially intact in terms of volume and, for one twentieth of its original extraction cost, can be re-melted to become new metal ready for its next task. Several successful national schemes for the collection and recovery of used beverage cans (for the production of more beverage cans) represent clear evidence that aluminium packaging materials can be recycled with outstanding success.

Modern molten metal filtration techniques keep quality high, and the aluminium companies greatly value this rich source of secondary metal which is available at such a comparatively low energy cost.

What About Foil?

Although aluminium foil represents a tiny proportion of the total household waste stream (less than 0.5%), the aluminium industry is keen to have this valuable raw material returned.

Clean foil, such as ready-meal containers and catering trays, pie cases, kitchen foil, dairy product lidding and non-laminated chocolate wrapping, can be easily recycled in the secondary industry through a simple re-melt process. State-of-the-art reverbatory furnaces, with full environmental protection, keep melt losses to a minimum and deliver the 95% energy saving common to aluminium recycling. Aluminium has secure and growing end-markets, with much recycled metal being used for cast components, such as vehicle parts. The light-weighting of vehicles through increased use of aluminium means even more energy savings.

Recycling is not new to foil.

For over forty years, and thanks to its metal value, used foil from packaging has been widely collected to raise money for charity. With the growing awareness of the importance of environmental matters in recent years. European Directives, recycling levies and land-fill taxes have now taken over where charity was once the main driving force. All packaging materials are now subject to strict recycling and recovery controls in Europe.
Heavy Investment by the Aluminium Foil Industry

Without the background of environmental legislation, the aluminium industry is well motivated to recover all the used metal it can, from whatever use. It wants to have its metal back at a lower energy cost than virgin metal.

This is why there has been considerable investment over several years into finding better ways to recycle the metal. For example, one major group of companies who supply the thin foil used for the laminates for drinks cartons carried out a feasibility study which demonstrated that it is possible to separate the metal from the plastics and board materials, and to return the used aluminium to make more foil.

Now the same group has set up a joint venture to establish a dedicated plant to recover the metal from drinks cartons and to recover the energy from the other materials - mainly paper and board.

Eddy Current Technology

Separating the valuable aluminium components from a mixed waste stream has been an important area of technical advance in recent years. The technique which exploits the phenomenon of ‘eddy currents’ set up by rapidly alternating magnetic fields and which has the effect of separating metal-bearing items from a mixture of materials, is widely used in the management of household and industrial waste.

The aluminium industry has been active in bringing attention to the technique and has, in some instances, helped to sponsor trial installations designed to demonstrate its benefits.

Recycling Foil From Laminates

Laminated packs containing aluminium foil are environmentally highly efficient, because of their low demand on material resources compared to other packages offering similar product protection. Low pack weight means low use of energy during distribution.

Until recently, it was considered that the metal used in foil laminates could not be economically recycled. However, on the positive side, the energy locked into the metal can be recovered in energy-from-waste plants.

Thanks to considerable research by the aluminium industry, ways have been found to separate the materials, and to recover the metal. Alternative uses of the separated residues are another valuable field of study with, in one example, the shredded aluminium foil becoming a raw material in the production of cement products.