When getting the recycle can ready for the week there are instructions about what to place in the can. Aluminum soda cans are to be placed in the recyclables can while tin soup cans are to be thrown away. Why not take the extra effort to recycle all metal?
In: Chemistry
All metal is recyclable, but some metal is more worth it than others
Aluminum is the most desired metal for recycling because its so damned expensive to make in the first place. A stupid quantity of energy is used to go from bauxite ore to aluminum metal, far far far more than is used to go from iron ore to steel. As such, recycled aluminum can be turned into new aluminum for about 5% the cost that new ore can be made into new aluminum so its quite profitable to get aluminum to recycle
Steel(your tin can is likely steel) is fairly easy to make by comparison, and we’re pulling lots and lots of iron out of the ground to make fresh steel with every day at a reasonable cost. Its nice to recycle it, but you have to move *a lot* of iron and steel to cover your fixed operating costs, far more than with a more valuable metal like aluminum
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