Aluminium Cans and the Environment
- They are 100% recyclable and, because they remain in one piece when opened (ie no lids or labels), the whole container is recycled.
- 95% less energy is used when making an aluminium can from recycled material compared to raw materials - this represents a huge reduction in greenhouse gas emissions!
- Empty cans are light-weight and easily crushed, which means they are easy to take home for recycling when you can't find a recycling bin at the beach, park or sporting field.
- They are light weight and compact (compared to glass, for example), making them easy and efficient to transport.
- Over the past 25 years aluminium cans have become about 30% lighter. Thinner, stronger sections are now being used with less metal, less energy and more savings in weight. An average aluminium can (without its contents, of course) weighed 16.55 grams in 1992. By 2005 the aluminium can weighed about 14.7 grams.
For more information visit The Aluminium Can Group website.
To help you recycle correctly at home, school or work download, print out and display one of our aluminium recycling posters.
- 'Recycle Right ... Aluminium' Poster (191kb pdf file)
- 'Recycle Right ... at Lunch' Poster (181kb pdf file)
Documents marked with 
may only be available in PDF format. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat (or the reader), a FREE reader is available from Adobe.