Is recycling aluminum cans really worth the time and effort? It may not be the best way to become a millionaire, but it’s certainly a great way to contribute to a greener lifestyle, and it can help you save each month.
Depending on consumption habits and location, there is an opportunity to earn a few extra bucks by recycling aluminum cans. It can lead to better long-term money habits as well as contribute to the offset of negative environmental consequences.
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A question people may ask is, “Where are the places for aluminum can recycling near me?” Luckily, these locations are fairly common. The places consumers can recycle aluminum cans to earn money include:
Local recycling centers
Scrap metal companies
Some grocery stores
It’s generally more efficient to collect large amounts of aluminum cans before bringing them for recycling in order to ensure the trip is worthwhile. A good strategy is to have a designated bin at home for aluminum can recycling or a storage area such as the garage where cans will be collected for eventual redemption.
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Recycling Centers
This is often the most popular place for consumers to trade in aluminum cans for cash. There are hundreds of recycling centers located across the U.S., so there’s likely to be one a short trip away.
Scrap Metal Companies
Similar to recycling centers, scrap metal companies will almost always accept aluminum cans that are up to standard. Aluminum is one of the most recycled materials in the entire world, so it’s always worthwhile for these businesses to get their hands on more of it.
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Grocery Stores
Many grocery stores will also accept and reward consumers for returning aluminum cans. This can be one of the most efficient ways to recycle and earn from a collected take of cans, as it can often coincide with a trip for groceries anyway.
Good To Know
The iScrap app locates the nearest scrap metal yard to a user’s location. It takes the hassle out of finding where the best-priced location is for trading in cans for cash. This option is best suited for large quantities of cans of a high standard. It is also likely the best option for consumers who don’t want to drain their gas tank and eat into any profits gained.
What Conditions Are There for Selling Aluminum Cans?
The above locations where consumers can sell aluminum cans often come with some conditions to the purchase. This may involve washing each can thoroughly as well as crushing them. This process ensures the cans are up to an acceptable standard for the party buying the metal. It also deters unwanted bacteria, insects and rodents.
Why Are Aluminum Cans Worth Anything?
Aluminum is a precious metal that is not only used for cans but for many mass-produced items globally. This includes, but is not limited to, cars, airplanes, foils, kegs, kitchen utensils and construction materials.
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How Much Can I Expect To Earn From Recycling Aluminum Cans?
Technically, there is no limit to how much can be earned from recycling aluminum cans, as they are infinitely recyclable. However, it often works better as a side project that supports sustainability rather than as a method to earn a wheelbarrow full of cash.
Typically, recyclers in the U.S. can expect aluminum can prices to hover around $0.64, on average, per pound of cans. However, as the table below will illustrate, the monetary reward will mostly depend on location.
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Which States Give the Best Rates for Aluminum Cans?
The value of aluminum cans varies from state to state. California, Mississippi and Wyoming offer some of the best rates, whereas Delaware and New York offer some of the lowest monetary returns.
To isolate the states with the best rates, the below table compiles the average rate U.S. citizens can expect to earn per pound. This is based on recycling centers in the regions where the data is currently available.
State
Aluminum Can Rate Per Pound
State
Aluminum Can Rate Per Pound
Alabama
$0.36
Alaska
$0.34
Arizona
$0.45
Arkansas
$0.37
California
$1.75
Colorado
$0.47
Delaware
$0.05
Florida
$0.49
Georgia
$0.42
Illinois
$0.47
Indiana
$0.50
Iowa
$0.44
Kansas
$0.37
Kentucky
$0.52
Louisiana
$0.49
Maryland
$0.40
Massachusetts
$0.32
Michigan
$0.46
Minnesota
$0.29 to $0.67
Mississippi
$0.60
Missouri
$0.47
Nebraska
$0.37
New Jersey
$0.54
New York
$0.13
North Carolina
$0.36
North Dakota
$0.30
Ohio
$0.55
Oklahoma
$0.51
Pennsylvania
$0.53
South Carolina
$0.41
Tennessee
$0.43
Texas
$0.51
Utah
$0.59
Virginia
$0.45
Washington
$0.40
West Virginia
$0.45
Wisconsin
$0.42
Wyoming
$0.60
Where Can I Find Aluminum Cans To Recycle?
The best ways to find aluminum cans to recycle are often just by looking at what’s in front of our faces. Some of the best places to source cans include:
Home
Public parks
Festivals
Work
Home
Hosting a summer BBQ or a big sporting event? A great way to make money back on the party groceries can be to clean and set aside all of the empty aluminum cans that resulted. Neighbors, family and friends in the surrounding areas may also be willing to hand over any cans that were ready to be thrown in the garbage.
Public Parks
Public parks will often have empty cans littered all over the place. Heading out with a trash bag to collect them will help keep local areas clean while adding to your stash.
Festivals and Events
Festivals and beverages go hand in hand, so the grounds can be a great area to source a lot of cans during an event.
At Work
People love to take a break during the workday to grab a cold beverage from the vending machine. Collectors can check with their employer for permission to take the cans home, and then they can redeem them for cash at one of the acceptable locations.
Final Take
Recycling aluminum cans is a brilliant way to reduce a consumer’s carbon footprint while also earning a little bit of money on the side. It likely isn’t all that worthwhile as a side hustle from home, but it can make extra money fast to add to your wallet each month.
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Aluminum Can FAQs
How much is the aluminum in a can worth?
Aluminum can prices vary by region and are based on weight. The average recycling value per pound of cans in the U.S. is currently $0.64.
How many aluminum cans are in a pound?
The exact number of cans per pound can't be quantified due to different measurements. Depending on the brand, estimates show there are usually 32 to 35 cans per pound.
For smaller, more common 12-ounce containers, it will be more per pound. For larger containers, such as the 32-ounce size, there will be fewer per pound.
How much do tin cans cost?
Tin scrap in the U.S. generally goes for $110 per ton on today's open market. The value of a single tin can would calculate as a fraction of a cent as a result.
What are the latest scrap metal prices?
Scrap metal prices are determined by current market conditions and will increase and decrease based on demand and supply. Good resources to gauge current prices include scrapmetalbuyers.com and the iScrap app.
Information is accurate as of June 13, 2022.
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How Many Aluminum Cans Does it Take to Make $100? At an average price of 5 cents per pound, you'd need about 5,000 cans to make $100. That could be significantly reduced if you live in an area that pays higher prices. At $2 per pound, you'd need just 1,600 cans (50 pounds).
An empty aluminium can approximately weighs around 17g. That means you'd need roughly 58 cans to have 1kg, & for 1ton you would need 58,928 cans. Because of the quantity required, for most people it's not worth collecting the quantity required for you to sell to a scrapyard.
They are not. Beverage aluminum is all the same recycle price. The tabs take up less space though. The amount of work required to separate the tabs simply increases your cost.
This is often the most popular place for consumers to trade in aluminum cans for cash. There are hundreds of recycling centers located across the U.S., so there's likely to be one a short trip away.
An aluminium can weighs just 15 grams which is equivalent to three candy coated chocolate buttons. The walls of an aluminium can are just 0.11mm thick – about the diameter of an average human hair. Australians use more than three billion aluminium cans per year.
Only aluminium cans are worth cash: look out for the 'alu' symbol. If the can doesn't say what it's made of, test the side with a magnet. Aluminium is NOT magnetic, so the magnet won't stick. Remember aluminium cans are lighter than steel cans, as well as shinier, and do not rust.
Do crushed cans weigh more than un-crushed cans? The answer to this myth is a simple NO. The only reason people crush cans is so they can fit more cans in a bag....in turn, making the bag weigh more (because there is more cans).
There is no limit to the amount of times an aluminum can be recycled. We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year. At one time, aluminum was more valuable than gold! A 60-watt light bulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pound of steel.
Basic Info. Aluminum Price is at a current level of 2430.79, up from 2408.42 last month and down from 2602.99 one year ago. This is a change of 0.93% from last month and -6.62% from one year ago.
Not for yourself. Metal recycling is only economical when done on a large scale. Melting down used cans in your backyard will cost you more in gas or electricity, depending on what kind of melting process you use, than the scrap metal will ever yield.
While you may recycle them, you can also sell those cans to recycling facilities or scrap metal yards for cash. There are a few start-up expenses to recycling and selling cans, but you'll keep most of the money you earn. All you need are recycling bins, some trash bags, and a car to transport the cans.
Today, cans can be produced with a wall thickness of 0.097 mm – as thin as a human hair. The can end is also becoming increasingly lighter: the new generation of can ends uses 10% less material than standard ends. A single gram of weight saved in the can, saves over 200,000 tonnes of aluminium globally per annum.
related problems How good are the estimates? The walls of US soda cans are about 0.0102cm thick. Using the Density Method, we got a thickness of 0.0166cm.
The inside of the can is lined by spray coating an epoxy lacquer or polymer to protect the aluminum from being corroded by acidic contents such as carbonated beverages and imparting a metallic taste to the beverage. The epoxy may contain bisphenol A.
One place to look for cans is along roadsides or the sides of hiking trails. People using hiking trails often simply toss their used cans to the side, given the lack of trash bins available. If a hiking trail is well-used, the cans will collect frequently.
A very large garbage bag can hold about 3–400 cans/bottles (the leaf size industrial bags) or many more if you crush them down. The value will depend on the types of cans and the local payment for each type. At $0.05 per can 300 cans is $15.
Crushing cans doesn't add weight, however, a given volume of crushed cans will weigh more when compared to the same volume of intact cans due to increased density.
For most scrappers, copper is the king of scrap metal because it gains as much as $2 to $4 per pound. When it comes to scrap metal, that's a pretty high amount, especially compared to other metals like aluminum or brass.
For those of you can recyclers who are part of a multiple-stream recycling program (sorting your cans in separate bins), feel free to crush away. But if all your recycling is tossed into one bin, keep your cans intact.
Crushing aluminum cans is more than just fun—it means the can will take up less space, right? Not so fast—it turns out crushing aluminum cans is actually worse for the environment because it can muck up the sorting process.
The funds generated from recycling these aluminum gems help offset the House's expenses. Collecting pop tabs is a great program that benefits the Ronald McDonald House families and is easy to organize.
Bottles must be crushed and all of the air removed. Be sure to replace the cap back on after you have done this. This causes more space to be saved at the processing facility, reducing the need for expansion.
The California Refund Value (CRV) is the amount paid to consumers when they recycle beverage containers at certified recycling centers. The minimum refund value established for each type of eligible beverage container is 5 cents for each container under 24 ounces and 10 cents for each container 24 ounces or greater.
Once in the landfill, it does not decompose quickly. Some estimates put the lifespan of styrofoam in a landfill around 500 years, and some put it way beyond that. Of course, some fraction of all discarded styrofoam does not go into landfills.
One of the biggest disadvantages of recycling aluminum is its need to be separated from steel, plastic, and other debris. When aluminum is continually recycled it loses it quality. So a product made with new aluminum will be of higher quality than the recycled product. The Sorting is time consuming and costs money.
According to the World Bank, the aluminum price will increase to $2,000 per metric ton (t) in 2021, a 17% rise from an average of $1,703/t in 2020, and experience moderate growth to $2,050/t in 2022. By 2035, the World Bank predicts aluminum prices will reach $2,400/t.
In late February 2022, the price of aluminum was already at an all-time high. Russian aluminum production has not been affected, but due to the sanctions, exports are becoming significantly more difficult, and aluminum is becoming increasingly scarce – so much so that a complete halt in supply cannot be ruled out.
Both products continue to move lower here in the second half of 2022. Steel prices in general continue to move lower, following a historic run up in late 2021 and early 2022.
It takes about 75,000 cans to make a metric ton, so each one should be worth about 2.5 cents. But recycling the cans turns out to be harder than it looks, because the basic soft drink or beer can is actually made of two kinds of aluminum.
Do crushed cans weigh more than un-crushed cans? The answer to this myth is a simple NO. The only reason people crush cans is so they can fit more cans in a bag....in turn, making the bag weigh more (because there is more cans).
But what exactly is a can made of? Aluminium and plastic. The outside is made of aluminium and there is a thin food-grade plastic film on the inside which protects the beer from contact with the aluminium.
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