Dear Ken,
I am writing about an article that appeared in the July/August
1999 issue of Waste Reduction Tips (In the news… page 2).
You should know that the aluminum can recycling rate announced
in March by Aluminum Association, the Can Manufacturers Institute
and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries was inflated
by the 7.9 billion scrap aluminum cans imported into the
U.S. in 1998. Thus, Americans returned 56.1 billion aluminum
cans in 1998, not 64 billion, and the recycling rate was
55.6 percent, not 62.8 percent.
The number of scrap aluminum can imports has grown steadily
since 1992 and reached nearly 8 billion last year. Including
the imported cans distorts the aluminum can recycling rate.
After the Container Recycling Institute brought this issue
to the attention of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
EPA corrected the aluminum can recycling data in their annual "Characterization
of Municipal Solid Waste in the U.S.: 1998 Update" going
back to 1994.
I am enclosing a copy of the Spring 1999 issue of CRI's
Container and Packaging Recycling UPDATE which explains the
inflated aluminum can recycling rate issue. If you are not
currently receiving our newsletter we will see that you are
added to our mailing list.
Regarding the energy saved when new cans are made from scrap
cans as opposed to virgin materials - CRI stated in a newsletter
several years ago that "making new cans from scrap cans
saves 95 percent of the energy needed to produce aluminum
from raw materials." Linda Gaines of the Argonne Institute,
located in Argonne, Illinois, informed CRI that because the
can manufacturing process is so energy intensive, the total
energy saved in making new cans from old cans is 75 percent
not 95 percent.
I appreciate receiving your newsletter and wish you every
success as the new publisher/editor of Waste Reduction Tips.
Sincerely,
Pat Franklin
Executive Director |
