Let us start with the life cycle of aluminium can. Metals don't have life anyway. To make this passage interesting, let's assume that metals are living things

Here in a processing unit, an aluminium-can is born. Meanwhile let me tell you a fun fact, every 3 seconds, a human baby is born, in mean time 140 cans are born! Alright here a new born aluminium can goes to the self of a beverage store and ready to be sold. Someone purchases the beverage, enjoys it, and the empty aluminium can is thrown in a recycle bin. This scrap aluminium can is easily separated from other scrap and are taken for the recycling process. There he is melted in a furnace, rolled into sheets in mills and then new beverage can is made. However this recycling process completes within 60 days. So after 60 days, the old dead beverage can gets a rebirth. He is back on the self again for business, yelling “I am back.” Yes the fact is aluminium never wears out, it can be recycled forever. “Aluminium never dies!” And the important fact about aluminium is that it never looses its properties. So a scrap aluminium-can becomes a new one in 60 days, it’s “can to can in 60 days”

Though this story is imaginary, the facts told about aluminium are true. That is, the scrap aluminium-can can be recycled within 60 days and reused as a new can without any loss in the metal properties. And aluminium can be recycled for many number of times. So if anyone sees an aluminium-can lying in roadside, it is not just a waste, but it is a living aluminium-can crying that “I am still alive”. So “SAVE THEM!”

THE RECYCLING PROCESS
The recycling of Aluminium can is a simple four stage process.

1. Shredding- Aluminium cans which arrive in bales are shredded into pieces to the size of a walnut in a shredder. The shredded pieces are then passed to a magnetic separator to remove the impurities.

2. Decoating- Decoating is done to maximize energy efficiency. Lacquer from the branded and decorated cans is removed by blowing hot air (around 500ºC) through the shreds in a decoater, on a slowly-moving insulated conveyor.

3. Melting- The hot, shredded, decoated aluminium is fed into the furnaces and melted. The furnaces have state of the art regenerative burners and a burner management system to reduce the amount of energy used.

4. Casting- Ingots are cast by tilting the holding furnace and pouring the molten metal - via a two-stage process to remove any remaining minute non-metallic particles and gases - into a vertical casting unit. Chemical composition and metal cleanliness are then tested on each cast. As the metal flows into the mould, it is chilled by jets of cool water being pumped around the mould, and a solidified outer shell is formed. The ingot solidifies gradually during the casting process, which takes approximately three hours. The ingots,which each contain around 1.6m used drinks cans, are then shipped on to a mill for rolling into the sheet from which can makers subsequently produce new cans.

Aluminum cans distinguish them as the most recycled and most recyclable beverage container in the world. An awesome 105,784 cans are recycled every minute nationwide.

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About the Author: More information on aluminium scrap can be found at www.recycleinme.com . You can also find daily aluminium prices and charts at the fast growing scrap portal.