Metal food cans

[Valjean]

Apparently it's cheaper to mine and smelt iron ore than to recycle already existing steel.
We have the same problem with plastics: cheaper to manufacture de novo than to recycle.

 

[Lyndon]

An anti-recylcer, eh.
It takes very little water to clean a can.
But you should see what recycling looks like at
a scrap yard....mud & dirt all over...rusty metal.
It needn't be all that clean.

You're not dealing with massive water shortages like we are here

 

[Revoltingest]

You're not dealing with massive water shortages like we are here

It takes very little water, especially if re-used.
Use the dirty water on plants.

 

[Valjean]

You're not dealing with massive water shortages like we are here

Why does it take water to recycle a can? Just melt and recast it.
It certainly takes lot less energy than it does to get rocks out of the ground, take them to a steel plant and smelt a few kilos of iron out of a tonne of ore.

 

[Revoltingest]

Why does it take water to recycle a can? Just melt and recast it.
It certainly takes lot less energy than it does to get rocks out of the ground, take them to a steel plant and smelt a few kilos of iron out of a tonne of ore.

We clean cans because they sit around until
they're picked up. Less stinky...fewer bugs.

 

[Twilight Hue]

By the time you've thoroughly washed the can, you've wasted more water than you'll save in metal by recycling.

Leave it out in the rain. Let nature clean out the food bits. ;0]

 

[Lyndon]

Leave it out in the rain. Let nature clean out the food bits. ;0]

Rain???? we live in a desert

 

[exchemist]

My town has discontinued the recycling of cans. I thought that my town might start up again so I save them. When that hasn't happened, I looked online for another place to bring them but there isn't another place.

Now, I wonder if they are really useful for something or if they were being recycled just to be eliminated from the landfills.

Are food cans good for anything or should I put them with the rest of my garbage?

They are melted down and cast into new metal ingots, so yes very useful, if there is an economic way to collect them and take them to the furnace. If there isn’t, I don’t think there is much you can do with them.

 

[exchemist]

By the time you've thoroughly washed the can, you've wasted more water than you'll save in metal by recycling.

Not if you already have a bowl of water for doing the dishes anyway, which is usually the case.

 

[savagewind]

They are melted down and cast into new metal ingots, so yes very useful, if there is an economic way to collect them and take them to the furnace. If there isn’t, I don’t think there is much you can do with them.

There is a company that takes metal. One day, I might smash them all with a hammer and bring them there. They will say, "we can't give you any money for them" and I might think, "no ****!" but, I won't say that. What I might say is that it is OK, I just don't want to waste them all in a landfill or in a furnace. Though, I think the furnace is better than the landfill because some energy is made that way, or so I have heard.

 

[exchemist]

There is a company that takes metal. One day, I might smash them all with a hammer and bring them there. They will say, "we can't give you any money for them" and I might think, "no ****!" but, I won't say that. What I might say is that it is OK, I just don't want to waste them all in a landfill or in a furnace. Though, I think the furnace is better than the landfill because some energy is made that way, or so I have heard.

The furnace I was talking about is a scrap iron electric arc furnace, used to melt down scrap and make new iron and steel from it. It's not energy recovery, it is recycling the metal.

I understand that in some places the cost of collection and transport of empty cans may exceed the scrap value, making it uneconomic.

It would be noble of you to go to the trouble of crushing the cans and taking the to a scrap dealer yourself. I think what you do is open the bottom as well as the top so you can squash the cylinder flat. That's what we used to do when I was camping, anyway.

 

[savagewind]

Thanks! This internet thing though is a wall, and that's how it is. From the beginning my deal with the site is they don't know me, and my friends and family do not know I'm here. This is all....anonymous, so I can work through things without having anyone breathing down my neck about my thoughts.

Keep writing. I think that I know good writing. You have it.

The deal with this site is we don't know you? I think that what you mean is that we don't know who you are. I know you. I like you. You are a good and smart person. That is what I know.

 

[savagewind]

The furnace I was talking about is a scrap iron electric arc furnace, used to melt down scrap and make new iron and steel from it. It's not energy recovery, it is recycling the metal.

Someone told me that the garbage is burned to make energy.

 

[exchemist]

Someone told me that the garbage is burned to make energy.

You can get energy back from burning a lot of garbage, including wood and paper, plastics and even food waste, but to burn iron for energy you would need to pulverise it, I think.

But I see - after looking it up - that burning pulverised iron is in fact being explored as an energy source: Iron fuels the fires of carbon free energy

Well I never. I didn't know that before.