Core77
e
- Topics
- Features
- Awards
- Careers
-
Firms
- Firms
- Search Firms;
- Firm Projects
- Forums
-
More...
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Advertise
- About
- Terms of Use
Core77 is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more
If You're Going to Design Something New, Useful and Desirable, Please Make It Out of Recycled Aluminum Cans
Infinitely recyclable, it's better than using recycled plastic--though there are some pluses and minuses
By Rain Noe - November 6, 2019
Pop quiz: Which is better for the environment, plastic bottles, or aluminum cans?
Aluminum cans are, of course. But that doesn't mean they're all good; the details can get a little complicated. To start off, let's look at this data visualization of how many aluminum cans us Earthlings go through in one year:
Enter a caption (optional)
(Note: The creator of the video, MetaBall Studios, cites their data sources as The World Counts and Web Packaging.)
So at press time we were at roughly 178 billions cans used this year, on our way to 200 billion by year's end.
The bad news is, those cans are a bitch to produce, at least from the planet's perspective. The bauxite mining required to produce aluminum "is harsh on the planet…leaving environmental destruction behind," Earth911 reports. "Bauxite mining contributes to habitat loss and water contamination, as well as a slew of other negative environmental impacts, like increased erosion."
The good news is, you can recycle the shit out of aluminum. As in, you can recycle it over and over again, infinitely, unlike plastics, which have a limited amount of times they can be recycled, depending on which type.
The bad news is, at this point we're only recycling about half of our aluminum cans. (Sciencing.com says 50%; Recycle Nation says 55%. Whatever the case, it appears to be growing--in author Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff: The Impact of Overconsumption on the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-And How We Can Make It Better, which was written in 2011, Leonard states that we were recycling 45%.)
The good news is, if we're producing 200 billion cans a year and only recycling half of them, that means there's 100 billion cans' worth of raw material just waiting to be used. And if there's demand for that product, there will be demand to recycle more of the cans. So if you're a designer with the power to spec that out, spec that out!
-
oFavorite
-
Q2Comment
-
&
Rain Noe
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
Hiring Now See all industrial design jobs
-
Product Engineer - Skip HopNew York, New YorkSkip HopJul 08 -
Intern, Industrial DesignSan Francisco, CaliforniaAmmunitionJun 29 -
Product Design DirectorLake Worth, FloridaJABS Investor Corp d/b/a JABS Marble and GraniteJun 22 -
Autodesk Alias 3D ModelerChicago, IllinoisTangent Design Group, Inc.Jun 16 -
Industrial DesignerSpringfield, IllinoisXKGLOWJun 09
-
K1:1 | with Michael DiTulloA New Core77 video podcast series. Fresh interviews weekly. Subscribe on Youtube.
-
Hot On Coroflot
-
Design Jobs
Piotr Welniak
K
{Welcome
Create a Core77 Account
Already have an account? Sign In
By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use
K
Reset Password
Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.
If You're Going to Design Something New, Useful and Desirable, Please Make It Out of Recycled Aluminum Cans
Matt is 100% correct while the recycling "story" makes everyone feel good the reality is prime/virgin materials in most cases is more cost effective than recycled and for public corporate America that is a very tough sell to shareholders. With that being said there is little incentive for companies to use recycled materials, the USA lacks a country/government wide recycling program due to the cost cand capacity, many smaller EU countries are great at it, they have the government support, capacity and programs to force industry to make to it work. We are getting better but there is no top down drive to make it feasible. I know mulitple plastic recycling facilities that failed over power cost/equipment maintenance etc.