Aluminum foil recyclable tricks from ablison.com? If it is even remotely possible that any man-made item on Earth is more ubiquitous than plastic bags, it would have to be aluminum cans. But unlike plastic bags, which endanger marine life and trash the planet, aluminum cans are actually good for the environment. At least, they are if people like you and me take the time to recycle them. So why recycle aluminum? Well, as a starting point for answering that question, how about this: Aluminum recycling provides many environmental, economic and community benefits; it saves energy, time, money and precious natural resources; and it generates jobs and helps to pay for community services that make life better for millions of people.
If you live in Seattle, San Antonio or Richmond (VA), you will need to find another way to recycle your aluminum foil. Before placing any foil in your recycling bin, crumple it into a ball so it will not get torn or stuck in the recycling machinery. Do not take each individual piece and ball it up so that you have several tiny spheres. Instead, save up your aluminum foil and make a ball that is at least two inches in diameter. And again, make sure it is clean before you place it in your recycling bin.
Can I recycle aluminum foil for money? No. Even though it’s made from the same material as aluminum cans, which is one of the easiest materials to recycle for money, aluminum foil is too often used for food storage and not worth recyclers paying for it. Even if you find a company willing to recycle it for money, aluminum foil is so light that you’d have to collect a huge quantity to receive anything more than a few dollars. See additional details at is tin foil recyclable.
While most recycled aluminum is in the form of cans, aluminum foil is technically recyclable, but there’s a catch: It needs to be clean — that is, free of food residue, as grease or food residue can contaminate the other recyclables during the recycling process. In part because of the issues with contamination, and the reality that most people are unlikely to rinse their aluminum foil before recycling it, some waste haulers will not accept aluminum foil for recycling; the damage soiled aluminum foil does to other recyclables can outweigh the benefit of trying to recycle the aluminum foil.
Recycling Aluminum Reduces Your Carbon Footprint! Increasing environmental awareness and growing social responsibility have also driven the recent upsurge in aluminum recycling (see References 4). Recycling aluminum prevents more than 90 million tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere each year (see References 3). Recycling a single aluminum can avoids carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to a one-mile car ride and saves enough energy to power a television for about three hours. See even more details at https://www.ablison.com/how-to-recycle-aluminum-foil-and-is-it-biodegradable/.