[0:12] Today we're going to find out what
[0:15] really happens to recycled aluminum
[0:17] cans. It's probably a little different
[0:20] than you might think.
[0:23] It all starts right here in Alabama with
[0:25] Constellium and an aluminum recycling
[0:27] facility that's been here in the USA
[0:30] recycling aluminum for the past 90
[0:32] years. They are currently one of the
[0:33] largest used beverage can recycling
[0:36] facilities on the planet. Since aluminum
[0:38] is infinitely recyclable and 75% of all
[0:42] aluminum ever mined is still in
[0:43] circulation today, there's a very good
[0:45] chance that the cans you see here in
[0:47] these bales have already been through
[0:49] these fiery furnaces more than once. And
[0:52] it's time for them to ride the roller
[0:53] coaster of rebirth yet again. Behind me,
[0:56] each of these bales weighs about 1,000
[0:58] lb and contains about 30,000 aluminum
[1:02] drinking cans. Here in the United
[1:04] States, Americans consume about 100
[1:07] billion cans a year, and they need to be
[1:10] recycled somewhere. The big bales of
[1:12] cans are offloaded from semi-truckss and
[1:14] stacked neatly, positioned in rows,
[1:17] ready for their turn to be grabbed by
[1:19] the claw.
[1:25] The claw is really a grapple excavator
[1:28] that shreds full bales of cans to get
[1:30] them ready for processing. Thumbs up for
[1:32] that cool machine. Once the bales are
[1:34] broken open, the big front loader can
[1:36] then scoop up the loose cans and drop
[1:38] them onto a vibratory conveyor belt.
[1:57] The vibrations help sift the cans down
[1:59] onto the conveyor uniformally, so the
[2:02] facility inside has a steady stream of
[2:04] aluminum scrap to work with. Shredding
[2:06] the cans accomplishes multiple things.
[2:08] One, the smaller scraps are easier to
[2:10] work with. And two, shredding makes sure
[2:13] that there is no liquid remaining in any
[2:14] of the cans since liquid could be
[2:17] catastrophic to the furnaces, as we'll
[2:19] talk about later.
[2:20] >> So, the crush cans come in from outside
[2:22] inside this tumbler right here where
[2:24] they get delaminated and then thrown
[2:26] down into the furnace right here where
[2:28] everything gets melted up. This
[2:31] deacering process strips away the paint
[2:33] and enamel on the outside of the cans to
[2:35] get the aluminum cleaner before it falls
[2:37] into the furnace.
[2:44] And curiously, the best way to mix the
[2:46] new can scraps in with the already hot
[2:48] molten metal is with two mechanically
[2:50] stomping feet. like some kind of
[2:52] steampunk wine press. The oversized
[2:55] aluminum boot stompers help press the
[2:57] top layers of scrap down into the molten
[2:59] aluminum underneath. Aluminum melts at
[3:01] about 1,220°
[3:03] F. So, these furnaces are cooking quite
[3:06] literally. I had to put on some special
[3:08] PPE to keep me safe. This aluminumized
[3:11] jacket and gloves do two things. They
[3:14] reflect a lot of the radiant heat coming
[3:16] from inside the furnace while at the
[3:18] same time they're made with aluminum
[3:19] themselves. So, if there is any
[3:21] accidental splashes, the aluminum would
[3:23] beat up and roll off of my suit, keeping
[3:25] me safe underneath, hopefully. Speaking
[3:28] of splashes, one of the biggest concerns
[3:30] here at the factory is liquid getting
[3:32] inside of the furnace or the crucible,
[3:34] since liquid water expands about 1,000
[3:36] times in volume when it turns to steam.
[3:39] Any cans with liquid still inside of
[3:40] them would create an explosive silvery
[3:43] lava bubble, which is why the shredding
[3:45] and drying process is so important. Now
[3:47] that we have the molten aluminum lava
[3:49] all melted up inside of the furnace,
[3:51] it's time to collect it all in the
[3:52] largest crucible I've ever seen. The
[3:54] crucible is a specially built cup that
[3:56] can collect the silvery liquid aluminum
[3:58] for transport. Since the casting
[4:00] building is about a/4 mile away, we have
[4:02] to drive the liquid over to the next
[4:04] building. And a remotec controlled
[4:06] overhead crane does all the heavy
[4:08] lifting for us. Recycling aluminum uses
[4:10] 95% less energy than mining new aluminum
[4:13] from the ground. Which also means
[4:15] recycled aluminum has 95% fewer
[4:18] emissions while at the same time
[4:20] decreasing our dependence on foreign
[4:22] mines since we can just recirculate our
[4:24] own supply forever.
[4:41] as long of course as you're putting your
[4:43] cans in the right bin. It's also at this
[4:45] point that can constellium can add
[4:46] manganesees to the trough to keep the
[4:48] aluminum alloy consistent as well as
[4:51] some pink salt which helps acts as a
[4:53] flux. The salt helps collect
[4:54] contaminants that can be scraped off the
[4:56] top of the crucible. The slack that's
[4:58] getting scraped off is just the
[4:59] impurities and non-aluminum metals that
[5:02] have floated up to the surface. Yeah,
[5:04] it's pretty warm in here. Pretty warm.
[5:06] Pretty warm.
[5:08] >> After the top is scraped off, the whole
[5:10] crucible is hoisted back onto the
[5:12] awaiting truck to be driven off to the
[5:13] casting portion of the factory, which is
[5:16] another fun process to watch. If the
[5:18] trucks aren't able to leave right away,
[5:20] they can park under some torches to help
[5:22] keep the aluminum from solidifying since
[5:24] that would become a very large and heavy
[5:26] problem. Constellium recycles about 1
[5:28] billion pounds worth of aluminum every
[5:30] single year. And this factory operates
[5:32] all day long 24/7 since the furnaces can
[5:36] never be allowed to go cold. Once the
[5:38] trucks arrive at the casting machine,
[5:40] the easiest way to get the aluminum out
[5:41] of the crucible is with a giant straw.
[5:44] The straw sucks up the aluminum like a
[5:46] forbidden slurpee cup. You can see how
[5:48] fast it drains the molten aluminum in
[5:50] real time. Even though aluminum can be
[5:53] infinitely recycled, it's estimated here
[5:55] in the USA that about 60 billion cans
[5:58] are thrown into landfills every year
[6:00] where they can't be recycled. The United
[6:02] States has an aluminum can recycling
[6:04] rate of about only 43%.
[6:07] Which is pretty bad compared to Canada's
[6:09] 71% aluminum can recycling rate. I guess
[6:12] that's why they call it Canada.
[6:15] And the UK is sitting at around 80%. But
[6:17] it's actually Brazil that beats everyone
[6:19] with a nearly 100% aluminum can
[6:22] recycling rate. Nice work, Brazil. But
[6:25] you're probably like, "Hey, Jerry, how
[6:26] do we get the liquid aluminum into a
[6:28] usable format?" And I'm very glad you
[6:30] asked. The coolest part of this whole
[6:32] process is the casting and the rolling.
[6:34] The aluminum we just hoovered out of the
[6:36] crucible is poured into massive 40,000
[6:39] lb ingots, six at a time, without using
[6:42] any molds. Constellium pours the molten
[6:45] aluminum into a rectangle in the ground.
[6:47] And then as the aluminum cools down,
[6:49] thanks to the misters and flowing water,
[6:51] it can solidify into free space below
[6:54] the rectangle, creating an aluminum
[6:56] obelisk. This is called electromagnetic
[6:58] casting. A magnetic field helps the
[7:00] metal solidify without physically
[7:02] touching the walls of the mold, giving
[7:04] the slabs a uniform smooth finish on the
[7:06] hardened exterior, which will come in
[7:09] handy later. Constellium's ingots are
[7:11] about 2 meters wide and 5 meters long
[7:13] and weigh more than your mom's minivan.
[7:16] It's as dense as 12 minivans to be
[7:18] exact. The crazy part though is that
[7:20] even though they look hard and finished
[7:22] from the outside, they can retain their
[7:24] heat and be too hot for humans to touch
[7:26] for 2 or three more days as they sit on
[7:28] the factory floor. Once they are fully
[7:30] formed, the only thing that can move
[7:32] them around here at the factory is the
[7:34] overhead crane. These use large pencers
[7:36] to grab each ingot. It's rather
[7:38] impressive seeing a crane that can
[7:39] easily hoist these massive slabs of
[7:41] aluminum. Remember, each one of these
[7:43] weighs as much as a school bus.
[7:45] Constellium takes safety very seriously
[7:47] and blocks off all traffic underneath
[7:49] the crane's path while it's in motion.
[7:51] And while giant rectangles are fun and
[7:53] everything, to get the aluminum into a
[7:55] more usable form factor, we need to
[7:57] smash it a lot over and over again until
[8:00] it is 7 mi long. The chosen ingot is
[8:04] reheated in a furnace to make it
[8:05] malleable and then hot rolled with a
[8:08] 10,000 ton rolling mill. 10,000 tons is
[8:11] about the equivalent weight of 3,000
[8:13] elephants, all stampeding very neatly in
[8:15] the same spot. The ingot rolls back and
[8:18] forth through the mill, getting flatter
[8:19] and longer with each pass. You can see
[8:22] the liquid emulsion floating on top of
[8:24] our casting. This oil and water mixture
[8:26] accomplishes two things. The oil helps
[8:28] lubricate the metal as it gets rolled,
[8:30] and the water helps distribute the heat
[8:32] of the metal as it gets worked to keep
[8:34] it from warping and cracking. I also
[8:36] thought it was cool to see each of the
[8:37] electric motors attached to the rollers,
[8:39] since rolling and stopping and changing
[8:42] directions of a 40,000lb block of
[8:44] aluminum requires a lot of horsepower.
[9:01] Once our ingot is no longer a block and
[9:03] sits at about half an inch thick is
[9:05] rolled up into a coil to be passed on to
[9:07] the cold rolling mills. See most
[9:09] industrial facilities like automobile
[9:11] factories or appliance factories. They
[9:13] get their aluminum in rolls because the
[9:15] rolled up sheet metal form factor is
[9:17] easier to feed into their body panel
[9:19] stamping equipment. Or the rolls can be
[9:21] reincarnated back into aluminum drinking
[9:24] cans. We've seen these giant coils quite
[9:26] a few times in my other factory tour
[9:28] videos here on my channel. Thank you for
[9:30] subscribing by the way. To roll a
[9:32] complete 7m long strip of aluminum,
[9:34] constellium has to go vertical with
[9:36] accumulator towers since just like pizza
[9:39] dough, the more it gets squished, the
[9:40] longer it gets. And constellium makes
[9:43] about 3 million pounds worth of these
[9:45] finished coils every single day. All
[9:47] this to say that your recycled aluminum
[9:49] can can be back on the store shelf as a
[9:51] new can in about 60 days, but only if it
[9:54] goes into the recycling bin and not the
[9:56] trash bin. The nice thing about
[9:58] recycling aluminum cans, though, is that
[10:00] most recycling places will pay you for
[10:01] the metal, or you can always throw them
[10:03] in your streetide recycling bin if
[10:05] that's easier. At the USA's current 43%
[10:08] recycling rate, we aren't even
[10:10] replenishing our own domestic supply,
[10:12] which from a supply chain and national
[10:14] security perspective is a little bit
[10:16] unnerving. Do you recycle your aluminum?
[10:18] Let me know down in the comments. 40 of
[10:20] those bales of cans were turned into the
[10:22] massive ingot, which was then rolled
[10:24] into this huge coil behind me. So, make
[10:27] sure you put your next beverage can in
[10:29] the recycling bin so it can turn into
[10:31] your next vehicle, your next airplane,
[10:33] or back into a can you can drink from
[10:36] again. Hit that subscribe button if you
[10:38] haven't already, and thanks a ton for
[10:39] watching. I'll see you around.