U.S. aluminum use is expected to continue to grow as more vehicles are made with entirely aluminum bodies. Less than half of all aluminum cans are currently recycled in the U.S. even though aluminum, unlike plastic, is infinitely recyclable, and huge amounts of power are required to smelt, or refine, alumina into aluminum. Recycled aluminum doesn’t require smelting and uses only 5 percent of the amount of electricity. Melting aluminum for reuse doesn’t emit any perfluorocarbons, greenhouse gases that remain in the atmosphere for tens of thousands of years. A trade association of U.S. manufacturers and suppliers of metal cans, and the Aluminum Association, representing producers of primary aluminum and recycled aluminum, set a target of recycling 70% of all U.S. aluminum cans by 2030 and 90% by 2050. New, well-designed deposit systems will be required to achieve those targets.
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