Alcoa is ready for you to recycle more aluminum cans. The company dedicated a $24 million expansion of its Tennessee recycling facility today that will increase its recycling capability by nearly 50 percent.
“The aluminum can is the world’s most efficient package, largely because it can be recycled infinitely,” said Klaus Kleinfeld, President and CEO of Alcoa. “Today we are celebrating the successful completion of our expansion and another milestone in our drive to help increase recycling rates across North America.”
In 2009, Alcoa announced a commitment to work toward increasing recycling rates in North America to 75 percent by 2015. Increasing recycling capacity is part of the overall strategy to drive recycling rates. Reaching that goal will save the emissions of two coal-fired power plants.
The new Tennessee Operations Can Reclamation facility includes a new crusher and delacquering furnace and supporting building enclosures, utilities and environmental systems. These improvements will help increase capacity using state-of-the-art environmental and fuel-efficient technology, as well as support future flexibility to process other scrap types.
Recycling an aluminum can saves 95 percent of the energy it takes to make a can from new metal. A used beverage container can be recycled and back on the shelf in 60 days, something no other beverage package can do.
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