Metal Cans

Recycle metal cans

Recycle metal cans

Recycling steel and aluminium is one way to help minimise waste going to landfill and to preserve our precious natural resources.  Steel and aluminium cans are both extremely valuable resources, are 100% recyclable, and can be recycled over and over again. 

The steel baked bean can in your cupboard, could easily be recycled into another baked bean can, a railway track or even a steel beam used for building construction. 

Your old aluminium soft drink cans are easily and inexpensively recycled into new soft drink cans, window frames or bicycles.  Recycling an aluminium can uses only 5% of the energy required to manufacture a new can from natural resources.  By recycling aluminium cans you are not only saving energy, you are also reducing the need to mine bauxite - a limited natural resource.

If you have a kerbside recycling system in your area, please remember that you can only place metal food cans in your recycling bin.  If you have other forms of scrap metal, please take it to the local transfer station or metal recycler.

Recycling Process
Both steel and aluminium cans have a very similar recycling process.

Firstly steel and aluminium cans are collected and transported to a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) to be sorted, compacted and baled.  The bales of steel and aluminium cans are then sent to the appropriate recycling companies where they are cleaned to remove all food scraps and labels.  The clean metal is then heated to a very high temperature so that it melts.  The melted steel is cast into sheets, while the aluminium is made into ingots. These steel sheets and aluminium ingots are then ready to be made into new steel or aluminium products.

Recycling Rules

• Rinse all steel and aluminium cans before placing them in your recycling bin
• Crush cans before placing in recycling bin
• Only place cans in your recycling bin or container