How cans are recycled

Recycling facts

Did you know the UK uses around 12 million cans a year? That's enough to stretch to the moon and back!

Recycling just 1 aluminium can saves enough energy to power a television for 3 hours!

Collection and sorting
  • Collected and crushed tins

  • Empty cans are collected with your recycling and taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), where they are separated into steel and aluminium. They are then crushed, baled and sent to reprocessors.

Heating and melting
  • image of a furnace

  • At the reprocessing plant the cans are put into a furnace and heated to very high temperatures until completely melted.

Cooling and rolling
  • Coils of thin metal

  • The molten metal is formed into large blocks, which are cooled and rolled into giant coils of very thin metal.

Re-using
  • new tins of food

  • These coils are used to create all sorts of new products, including new food and drinks cans and aerosols!

Watch our animated video