Reincarnation

Aluminum

How is recovered aluminum processed into useful products?
Aluminum scrap is ground or shredded into small chips before being melted and cast into molds. The molds are sent to manufacturing plants where they are molded or rolled into sheets that can be shaped into various products.

What products are made from recycled aluminum?
Rolled sheets of recycled aluminum can be formed into many products, such as car bodies. Aluminum is also cast (molded) or extruded into many useful forms like pop cans. Recycled aluminum has the same qualities as newly extracted aluminum.

Tin

How are recovered tin cans processed into useful products?
Tin cans are really tin-coated steel cans. Removing labels from cans and flattening them saves space in shipping. The tin coating on steel cans is removed with a caustic detinning solution and extracted from the solution by electrolysis. The remaining steel is rinsed, baled and sold to a steel mill.

What products are made from recycled tin cans?
Once tin and steel are separated, the recycled tin is used by the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and the steel is remanufactured into cars, cans and structures. Most steel products contain some recycled steel.

Glass

How is recovered glass processed into useful products?
A mechanical processing system breaks the glass into small pieces called cullet. Magnets, screens and vacuum systems remove metals, labels, bits of plastic and caps. The cullet is blended with silica sand, soda ash and limestone. The mixture is melted and blow-molded into new glass containers.

What products are made from recycled glass?
Recycled glass is remanufactured into glass containers and also is used in construction in the form of fiberglass insulation, utility trench backfill, road base material, glassphalt paving, countertops and tile.

Plastic

How is recovered plastic processed into useful products?
Barriers such as collection systems, infrastructure and low market demand hinder the possibility of recycling all types of plastics. Yogurt cups, for example, are usually made from polystyrene or a blend of different polymer types.

These have a very different structure and composition to the PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate), HDPE (High-density polyethylene) and PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) plastics used for bottles and may require a different infrastructure for processing.

What products are made from recycled plastic?
Recycled plastic can be made into fleece clothing, polyethylene bin liners, plastic bottles, flooring, window frames, building insulation board, video and compact disc cassette cases, fencing, garden furniture, fiber filling for sleeping bags and duvets, garden sheds, seed trays and a variety of office accessories.