15 facts about aluminum cans
- The energy you save by recycling a single aluminum can will run a TV for three hours.
- In the nineteenth century, aluminum or aluminium was a much more valuable metal than gold or silver.
- Most countries use the spelling aluminium (with an i before -um). In the United States, this spelling is largely unknown, and the spelling aluminum predominates.
- Every minute of every day, an average of more than 123,000 aluminum cans are recycled.
- Out of the most common recyclable materials that clutter up our landfills—glass, paper, metals, cardboard, plastics—aluminum is the only material that’s endlessly recyclable, 100% recyclable.
- Aluminium is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust, and the third most abundant element, after oxygen and silicon.
- The average lifespan of an aluminum beverage can is six weeks, including the time it takes to be manufactured, filled, sold, recycled and remanufactured.
- The industry that uses the most aluminum is the beverage industry.
- The thickness of the side of an aluminum can is about the same as that of a human hair.
- Four six packs of aluminum can support the weight of a 4,000-lb. aluminum car.
- Approximately 350,000 aluminum cans are made in a minute.
- In 1884, total United States aluminum production was only 125 pounds.
- Aluminum has a high melting point—1,220ºF, to be exact.
- Four tons of bauxite produces one ton of aluminum—enough to manufacture 60,000 beverage cans.
- Aluminium is remarkable for the metal's low density and for its ability to resist corrosion due to the phenomenon of passivation.
