Industrial uses of aluminum are based on the mining of bauxite ore. (student conservation association, The Environmental Impact of Aluminum (And Why it’s Still Better Than Plastic) https://www.thesca.org/connect/blog/environmental-impact-aluminum) Out of this, alumina (that eventually becomes aluminum) is gained, a metal discovered and first made in 1808 by the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829).If you want to see a video on this, here is one on Youtube Although the process of winning alumina from raw bauxite ore is highly energy-consuming and resource-intensive, aluminum has many aspects that qualify it as an overall eco-friendly material, among which the fact that it is infinitely recyclable.See Greenspec, Aluminium production & environmental impact
Recycled aluminum is known as secondary aluminum, but it retains the properties of primary aluminum. Compared to the production of aluminum from bauxite, aluminum recycling can save 90 percent of energy.Stanford University, Frequently Asked Questions: Benefits of Recycling https://lbre.stanford.edu/pssistanford-recycling/frequently-asked-questions/frequently-asked-questions-benefits-recycling) Cans as well as other aluminum-made items, e.g. parts of airplanes, have the potential to become part of a circular economy of metal reuse in which parts of aluminum-made household utensils can hypothetically be reused in the shell of a space rocket. See the video in the above Despite the highly evolved energy-saving technologies that have meanwhile been developed for aluminum recycling, beverage companies instead invest into PET plastic container engineering and recycling.The Guardian Why are major beverage companies refusing to use a 90% recycled can?.
