US Aluminum Recycling

Started by airboy, January 17, 2019, 09:33:08 AM

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airboy

Aluminum made from recycled scrap made up the majority of aluminum used in the US for the first time in 2018.

This was driven by two things.  China first imposed much higher quality standards on imported recyclable material then followed by imposed a 50% tariff on US scrap aluminum.  A glut of recyclable aluminum in the US resulted.  .  The Trump Admin's tariffs on foreign aluminum also contributed.  Imports went down 20% and domestic production went up 20%.  US new aluminum production cannot keep up with demand - so recycling got a boost.

Much scrap aluminum in the USA comes from recycled cars and torn down buildings.  That aluminum is harder to process and commands a lower price than scrap from cans which is easy to process.  But I was unaware that scrapped cars were such a huge source of recycled aluminum.

I've always told my wife that if a bum won't pick it up that the recyclable material had no market value.  She would sometimes fume if I got busy and only recycled the drink cans.  I told her that the cans were the only thing profitable.

My parents recycled starting back in the 1960s.  Dad figured out that he could make a few bucks recycling the newspapers we subscribed to and he would pay less in trash costs (we had private garbage service because we did not live in a city).  Thus, we recycled.  He also had the home he built in the mid-1970s installed with a lot of florescent lighting because again, it saved him money.  As children of the depression, my family was all about the cash and not about the tree-hugging eco-loonism that started in the 1970s.

Makadam

Not only aluminum but also recycled concrete and plastic can be a good material for construction. The other day I've read an article about this technology in China you've mentioned which uses building waste for reusing in the construction of 3D printed houses. They can 3D-print a house just in a day! It's not only quick but also economical and practical.

JasonPratt

Heh, next they'll be 3D printing whole cities for no one to live in!  :crazy2:

(Not a dig at the technology which sounds legitimately amazing. Just a poke at their broken housing situation: China is notorious for having built whole cities that barely anyone lives in.)
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Sir Slash

I'm doing my part to help recycle more aluminum by drinking more beer.  :bd:
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JasonPratt

It is indeed hard to recycle those cans with beer still in them.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!