[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Devil', '.').. I suggest that at least 98% of metals, by weight, are both environmentally and economically able to be recycled...

[Dezakin]

waegari:$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')et's give ES a break and for the sake of the argument let's just suppose it would be possible to build loads and loads of fast breeders worldwide.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Dezakin', 'c')ube:$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f recycling is such a financially sound idea why is it that most recycling programs came about purely through government intervention in the free market system? If it weren't for government subsidies and mandates a lot of stuff wouldn't get recycled today.

[Dezakin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')re you agreeing with me that the recycling of beverage containers is NOT economically viable?

[Devil]

Recycling drinks cans is MOST certainly viable, on one condition: that the consumers are disciplined enough to put them in containers at collection points. This is done in most European countries and it raises valuable money for the communes or other organisations that operate the collection. The London Metal exchange even quotes aluminium scrap prices.

In this country, which is really backwards in recycling or collecting rubbish, drinks cans is the one success story. The Makarios III Children's Hospital in Nicosia has organised the collection, island-wide, and provided the means for doing so, with 1 m3 steel baskets. In the village where I live, just 1100 inhabitants, there are three baskets at strategic locations (one in the school yard!!!). The collected aluminium is crushed, baled and exported by ship (I think to Italy, but am not sure) for recycling. The recyclers pay the hospital for the scrap metal and, with the proceeds, they have bought loads of expensive medical instrumentation. See http://www.cypenv.org/Files/waste.htm#Aluminium

Actually aluminium is the most profitable metal of all the base metals to recycle, because it melts at a relatively low temperature but requires enormous quantities of energy to smelt from ore. The bauxite has to be converted into alumina, mixed with fluorospar and electrolytically reduced into the metal in the Hall-Hérault process. It takes 16-20 kWh of electricity to produce just 1 kg of crude aluminium metal with enormous emissions of CO2 from the carbon electrodes (the cathode being the crucible). Worse still, there are large emissions of CF4, which is the worst known greenhouse gas, about 15,000 times worse than CO2 per unit weight and with an atmospheric lifetime in the tens of thousands of years. To recycle drinks cans takes less than 1 kWh/kg, with no CO2 (assuming HE, nuclear or renewables) or CF4 emissions, so the cost and environmental savings become very evident.

To judge the effect of recycling aluminium on the environment, see http://www.world-aluminium.org/environm ... index.html

Still don't believe me? Then take a look at this other page: http://www.world-aluminium.org/producti ... index.html
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nything made of aluminium can be recycled repeatedly not only cans, but aluminium foil, plates and pie moulds, window frames, garden furniture and automotive components are melted down and used to make similar products again. The recycling of aluminium requires only 5% of the energy to produce secondary metal as compared to primary metal and generates only 5% of the green house gas emissions. Scrap aluminium has significant value and commands good market prices. Aluminium companies have invested in dedicated state of the art secondary metal processing plants to recycle aluminium. In the case of beverage cans, the process uses gas collected from burning off the coating to preheat the material prior to processing. The recycling of aluminium beverage cans eliminates waste. It saves energy, conserves natural resources, reduces the use of city landfills and provides added revenue for recyclers, charities and local town government. The aluminium can is therefore good news for the environment and good for the economy.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Devil', '
')I'll go so far to say that any place which does not have organised collections of aluminium drinks cans is criminally underdeveloped.

[Devil]

Tackle the Council that seems under-organised.

The Communal Council of Romanel-sur-Lausanne has organised three collection points like this, in the village of 3000 inhabitants


This is quite typical of every place in Switzerland, but also many other countries. The Council actually makes a profit out of waste collection for recycling and, at the same time, have cut their landfill charges by >70%. The household garbage is used to generate almost 10% of the Lausanne region's electricity, into the bargain. So can every community in the developed world and larger ones in the developing nations, if they have a mind to do so.