Trashed Cans The Global Environmental Impacts of Aluminum

Trashed Cans: The Global Environmental Impacts of Aluminum Can Wasting in America Presentation to the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response October 29, 2002 Washington, DC Pat Franklin, Executive Director Jennifer Gitlitz, Research Director

Used aluminum beverage container (UBC) trends in the United States Aluminum beverage can sales have been steady at roughly 100 billion cans/year UBC Recycling Rate is Declining UBC Wasting is increasing (in billion units & total tonnage) True for glass and plastics as well. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Beverage container recycling rates declining: all 3 major packages © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Glass beverage bottle waste Recycling rate in 1998 was 31. 4% , down from 33. 4% in 1995 (GPI). (EPA 2000: 26. 1%) EPA estimates that 5. 7 million tons of glass beverage bottles were landfilled in 2000. (not including landfilling after curbside collection) Single stream, contamination, limited mixed color markets even more landfilled. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Thousands of tons PET plastic beverage bottle waste From 1992 to 2001: Annual recycling grew by 165, 700 tons Annual wasting grew by 630, 550 tons Source: American Plastics Council, 1992 -2002. Derived from "2001 National Post-Consumer Plastics Recycling Report, " American Plastics Council, 0 ct. 2002 (CRI assumes that 50% of "custom bottles" are beverage bottles). © Container Recycling Institute, 2002. © Container Recycling Institute,

Aluminum beverage can waste: 910 billion cans trashed since first Earth Day 50. 7 45. 8 1990: 594, 420 tons 2001: 759, 625 tons …a 28% increase Graph prepared using data from the Aluminum Association and the U. S. Department of Commerce. 1970 is a CRI estimate. ©©Container Recycling Institute, 2002. Container Recycling Institute,

Reasons for the trend Declining financial incentives to recycle cans n n n Scrap value of aluminum has not kept up with inflation In 10 deposit states, refund values have not increased Employment and wages have increased More away-from-home consumption n esp. true for plastics and glass Declining number of buybacks © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

A closer look at aluminum can waste 1. Wasting is increasing despite increasing number of residential recycling programs 2. Quantity of metal and energy squandered is staggering 3. Environmental & social effects are pronounced yet little-known 4. Aluminum industry’s efforts to address the problem have been largely symbolic and ineffective 5. Deposits recover cans more effectively than any other system © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Aluminum Cans Wasted in the United States, 1970 - 2001 © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Squandered metal Between 1990 and 2000, Americans wasted a total of 7. 1 million tons of cans: enough to manufacture 316, 000 Boeing 737 airplanes—or enough to reproduce the world’s entire commercial airfleet 25 times. * * Based on aluminum can wasting from 1990 -2000 (7. 1 million tons), 16, 000 jets in the worldwide commercial fleet, and an average of 35, 000 lbs of aluminum per plane. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

50. 7 billion cans wasted in 2001: Two million of these 700 -pound bales could have been made from the aluminum cans wasted in the U. S. last year. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

The Aluminum Can Recycling Rate: Two methods of measurement © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Imported vs. Exported Scrap Aluminum Cans, 1990 -2001 Source: Graph prepared using data from the U. S. Dept. of Commerce/Bureau of the Census. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Wasting aluminum cans has disproportionate environmental impacts Aluminum cans are only about 1. 4% of a ton of MSW by weight, but they account for 14. 1% of the greenhouse gas impacts of replacing a ton of landfilled garbage with new products made from virgin materials. Total greenhouse gas emissions from replacing the 50. 7 billion cans wasted in 2001: 3. 1 million MTCE. Wasted energy: The energy required to replace the 50. 7 billion cans wasted in 2001 was equivalent to 16 million barrels of oil: enough to keep 1. 3 million American cars on the road for a year. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Bauxite ore: 4 -5 tons are needed to make 1 ton of primary aluminum A red mud lake in Jamaica. Dust from alumina refining and export operations has caused respiratory and aesthetic damage, and portside alumina spills have harmed coastal coral reefs. In 2000, the U. S. imported 3 million tons of bauxite and 400, 000 tons of alumina from Jamaica, over 90% of which was used for primary aluminum. Photo: Dr. Robert J. Lancashire, University of the West Indies. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Alumina refining The Kirkvine alumina refinery in Jamaica. Alumina refining creates about two tons of caustic red mud wastes per ton of primary ingot, as well as a host of airborne emissions. Photo: Dr. Robert Lancashire © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Impacts of aluminum production are felt far from American consumers Built in 1965 to supply cheap power for a 174, 000 ton aluminum smelter in Tema, the Akosombo Dam on Ghana’s Volta River created a reservoir which covered 4% of the country, inundating the homes of 80, 000 people in 740 villages. The reservoir exacerbated waterborne diseases, including schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis (riverblindness), and malaria, and has done little in the way of rural electrification or local economic development. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Pollutants from “replacement production” of 759, 625 tons of cans wasted in 2001 } 55, 613 tons of SOx Acid rain and smog 19, 476 tons of NOx 5. 5 million tons of CO 2 84, 532 tons of CO Greenhouse gases 1, 025 tons total fluorides 15, 828 tons of PM respiratory distress 482 tons of VOC’s Carcinogens 2, 776 tons of organics 2. 7 million tons of toxic mud wastes and other residues } } © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Beverage container litter: $938/year per farm in damage “[B]everage containers tossed from car windows onto farmers’ fields present special problems. Dairy cows suffer lacerated organs —and die—after chewing on cans. Plastic containers are ground up in harvesters, contaminating hay, feed and vegetable crops, causing millions of dollars in damage. -- Larry Breech, President of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union, in an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 21, 2002. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Cartoon from Joel Pett © Joel Pett, Herald-Leader, 2000. Joel. Lexington Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader

Aluminum Can Recycling vs. Access to Curbside Programs, 1990 -2000 © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

The Effect of Deposit Laws on the UBC Recycling Rate, 1970 -1990 © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

In 10 deposit states, refund values have not kept pace with inflation SB 2220 would update the deposit value every 10 years, in 5 -cent increments, based on inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Financial incentives are key to attain beverage container recovery rates of 80% or more Michigan (b): 10¢ deposit Oregon (a): 5¢ deposit California (a): 2. 5¢ and 5¢ deposits U. S. average (a) Recycling rate for aluminum only (container types reported separately. ) (b) Redemption of plastic, glass and aluminum containers not reported separately. Actual state recycling rates for aluminum are probably higher than those indicated here, because in some states, cans are considered unredeemed (or "abandoned") even when they are recycled through curbside programs or by commercial haulers, and because some non-carbonated beverages in aluminum cans are also being recycled for their scrap value. See endnote 66 for sources. © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.

Pat Franklin, Executive Director Container Recycling Institute 1911 Ft. Myer Drive, Suite 702 Arlington, Virginia 22209 -1603 Tel. (703) 276 -9800 Fax (703) 276 -9587 pfranklin@container-recycling. org Jennifer Gitlitz, Research Director Home office 1010 Pleasant Street Worcester, MA 01602 Tel. (508) 793 -8516 Fax (928) 833 -0460 jgitlitz@container-recycling. org jengitlitz@aol. com www. container-recycling. org www. bottlebill. org © Container Recycling Institute, 2002.