How is metal recycled?

When you pop a drink can, empty aerosol or a foil tray into your recycling bin it embarks upon a magical journey of transformation.
The recycling process for metals is a very simple one, you consume and recycle, we remelt and reproduce that same metal into another valuable product, from car parts to window frames or even rockets bound for Mars, here’s what happens . . .

COLLECTION - Drink cans, foil trays, aerosols and other metals are collected from homes mixed with other food and drink packaging. All homes in Buckinghamshire can recycle metal packaging in their recycling bins. Check what you can recycle with the Waste Wizard

SORTING - Buckinghamshire's recyclable materials are taken to a UK based materials recovery facility (MRF) where they are sorted. Ferrous metals are separated using magnets, and the aluminium is separated by an eddy current separators. The metals are then crushed into steel, and separate aluminium bales ready for onward reprocessing.

REPROCESSING - Bales of metal packaging are then taken to UK based reprocessing plants, where they go through four stages – shredding, decoating, melting, and casting. During the final stage, the molten metals are cast into large ingots weighing more than207 tonnes each!

MANUFACTURING - Metal ingots are transported to manufacturing plants where they are rolled,  formed, or cast into new products. Your recycled aluminium can be used in the production of a wide range of items such as cars, bicycles or even planes. Steel can be used in construction or to make paint cans and lots of other packaging types.

DID YOU KNOW? When you recycle aluminium the recycling and new production process saves 95% of the energy used to make the original metal, it also saves 95% of the green house gas emissions produced!

Each can you recycled could be recycled and be back on sale as another can – in just 60 days.

Check out this RecycleNow video explaining how food and drink cans are recycled