How to Recycle Aluminum

Video Transcript

"Wow aluminum it's one of the most exciting metals you'll ever meet and let me tell you why it is because aluminum is so easy to recycle and I'm here to tell you why it's so important to recycle. It is, I'll tell you an interesting fact about aluminum. Most of our aluminum in the United States is mined overseas in different countries. Approximately 90% of the aluminum is mined in a different country. So what happens we're in another country and the aluminum is mined and it is basically dug out of a hole in the ground, aluminum boxite and it is loaded on to a ship and that ship is traveling across the ocean using engines that burn diesel or some other kind of fossil fuel creating air pollution and finally it lands on the shores of this country then it is transported again in a truck that burns more fossil fuels to take it to a processing facility where the aluminum boxite is ground up and then made into aluminum and then after it goes through all that it arrives in our hand as an aluminum can. So if you drink something from that aluminum can in some type of beverage and then you throw that aluminum can into the trash it is a terrible waste of all the energy that has gone in from the other country, across the ocean, I think you get the story so what you do it's so simple, just recycle the aluminum. If you recycle one aluminum can and you compare the amount of energy it takes to make an aluminum can from raw materials versus making it from recycled materials with that extra energy you would be able to run a television set for up to three hours, that is how much energy is saved from recycling an aluminum can. So if you recycle an aluminum can, just one can you are doing so much for the environment. If you recycle all the aluminum cans you ever use through the years you are doing wonders for the environment so I plead with you please recycle the aluminum cans. If you would like some more information about aluminum recycling check out the California Environmental Protection Agency website. It has all kinds of information about how you can live a little more gently on the Earth."