A 27 tonne ingot made from approximately 1.5 million used drinks cans.

All aluminium products can be recycled after use. Scrap is generally taken by road to the recycling plant where it is checked and sorted to determine composition and value. If the scrap is of unknown quality the aluminium will first be passed through some large magnets to remove any ferrous metal. Depending upon the type of contamination present, some scrap must be processed further, beverage cans for example must have their lacquer removed prior to remelting.

The scrap aluminium is then loaded into a furnace, which melts the aluminium completely. This molten metal is then cast or processed - using the same techniques as primary processing.

All aluminium which is recycled is described as either "new scrap" or "old scrap".

New Scrap

New scrap is that surplus material that arises during the manufacture and fabrication of aluminium alloys up to the point where they are sold to the final consumer. Examples include the trimmings from the edges of sheet aluminium, turnings and millings from aluminium fabrication and surplus extrusion discards. As such new scrap tends to come from the manufacturing industry it tends to be of a known quality and composition and can be processed with very little preparation.

Old Scrap

Old scrap is material which has been used by the consumer and subsequently discarded. This can include a wide range of items such as used beverage cans, car cylinder heads, window frames or electrical cabling.