Stop Crushing Your Aluminum Cans. Debunking the Myths of Recycling Metal

For most people receiving curbside pickup, the recycling process It seems simple: just throw your cardboard, plastic and aluminum in the trash for your weekly pickup.

But proper recycling is not that simple, and one mistake can put a major damper on the system as a whole. Concrete example? Grind your aluminum cans.

Crushing your empty cans in a flat metal disk seems like a good idea because it saves space. (It’s also kind of fun.) Turns out it’s a habit you should break: Recycling facility sorting machines have to recognize the shape of cans to properly identify them.

When you flatten cans, you risk confusing the equipment and potentially sending perfectly good aluminum to the landfill. Here are some simple recycling tips to ensure you’re always taking the right steps.

What types of metal cans can be recycled?

All metal cans are recyclable if they have been cleaned. Examples include:

• Aerosol bombs
• Beverage cans, such as soda and beer, including tablets
• Canned products
• Paint cans

Cleaning metal cans

Don’t do this: Throw the cans into the recycling bin before cleaning them. If food or liquids remain in the cans, they can contaminate an entire batch of recyclables, rendering them useless. Unrinsed cans can also attract cockroaches, rodents, and other nasty critters that you don’t want crawling around your trash cans.

Instead, do this: Make sure all cans are free of liquids or food that could be left in the container. You can do this by rinsing the can when you’re done.

What to do with the lids

Preserved: Don’t do it remove the lid only halfway before placing it in the recycling bin. Instead, remove the lid from the can completely and place it inside the can (after rinsing). Place the lids only in an empty box made of the same metal material.

Aerosol cans: Spray can lids are usually plastic, so you need to remove them before putting the cans in the trash. Plastic lids should be used with other recyclable plastic materials, as the heat applied during the metal recycling process will destroy any recyclable plastic materials mixed in the batch.

Should I remove paper labels before recycling cans?

Generally, you don’t need to remove paper labels from metal or aluminum cans before tossing them into the recycling bin. When recycling cans, the heat applied to the metal burns the paper and adhesive, preventing any risk of your contributions contaminating the batch.

However, there are other cases in which you may want to remove paper labels before recycling them. You can remove these labels from your metal cans and throw them away with your recycling paper if you don’t like the idea of ​​them turning to ash in the recycling process. More importantly, you TO DO You must remove the paper labels if you are recycling plastic, as the recycling process for metals and plastics is different.

If in doubt, it is best to contact your local recycling center. A Reddit user familiar with recycling facilities pointed out that while it’s important to understand the mechanics of recycling, each recycling plant has its own machines with different capabilities – they’re not standardized, so it’s not simple to give a universal answer.

By calling your local plant quickly, you will be sure to know what can and cannot be recycled, and what could contaminate a batch of recyclables.

What else should I do?

• Avoid puncturing aerosol cans to remove remaining liquid.
• Make sure all paint is dry or completely rinsed before recycling. If you have leftover paint or other hazardous waste, take it to a drop-off center near you.
• Do not crush aluminum cans before recycling as they may contaminate the batch. Recycling sorting machines also rely on shape to identify and crushing cans and other recyclables can cause them to trip.

For more information on recycling, here how to recycle plastic correctly And the right way to recycle paper and cardboard.

Metal Recycling FAQ