Eli5 if I sell my cans to a recycling company who buys their cans?

Question

I’ve always wondered this do they sell it to another recycling company down the road? If cans are selling for $1 a pound how much profit do they make?

In: 0

Answer 1

The can recyclers sells them to a scrap yard who buys cans from all the other recyclers in the city/region. The scrap yard them shreds the cans and sells them to a foundry that melts them into aluminum ingots. The ingots are sold to factories that then melt the aluminum and make aluminum products (thin sheets, thicker plates, and blocks that can be machined into things like extruded window frames, etc.).