Find out about recycling of steel/aluminum drink cans - Essay Example

Recycling Steel/Aluminum Cans Recycling Steel/Aluminum Cans Aluminum is used to produce various products; it is heavily used in the soft and alcoholic beverage industry. During the period of 2000, the number of steel cans utilized by the US population was 1000 million cans and the numbers of aluminum cans utilized by US citizens were 105,000 million cans (Heyworth, 2007, p.246). Production of aluminum in raw form requires huge amount of energy, various natural resources required to produce aluminum includes water and energy resources.

Bauxite is utilized during the production of aluminum, which requires both steam as well as heat energy. Energy required to produce this metal is obtained by burning down of fossil fuels, which contributes to emission of greenhouse gases and thus leads to global warming. Aluminum is an easy to recycle raw material and recycling this metal requires around 90% less energy as compared to producing raw aluminum. Recycling steel even has various associated benefits, every time a total of ton of steel is recycled, huge amount of resources such as coal and iron ore are saved for other uses.

Aluminum that is obtained in uncontaminated state is recycled through the process of melting, if the metal is contaminated along with other metallic materials, it is first separated from other materials and then melted into alloys. In case of steel, contaminated steel is separated from other materials with the assistance of magnet and then the shape of steel is changed for production of items such as clips for paper, cans for drinking and for automobiles such as bikes.ReferencesHeyworth, R. M.

, & Briggs, J. G. R. (2007). Chemistry insights O level [textbook]. Singapore, Pearson Longman.