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Waste
Published in Sigrun M. Wagner, Business and Environmental Sustainability, 2020
Recycling offers a number of benefits beyond decreasing the demand for virgin materials. It reduces the amount of non-recyclable product waste, reduces the dependence on fossil fuel-based raw materials and energy and creates cost savings (Anderson 2009). In the case of metals, recycling also reduces the amount of toxic chemicals released in the process of mining the metals. Recycling aluminium cans for example saves about 95% of the energy used to make them from virgin materials. Plants treating wastewater are now so effective that they can produce output that is clean enough to drink, though it is often used for irrigation, cooling and groundwater recharge (Anderson 2014). The latest discovery in recycling is a mutant enzyme that can break down the PET plastic used in bottles. The enzyme has mutated from a bacterium that breaks down the protective wax-like coating on plants. Rather than taking hundreds of years to break down in the environment, the enzyme takes days. Although the development is a long way from widespread scale and deployment, it is expected to result in plastic being truly recycled and reused as the enzyme returns PET into its plastic building blocks, thus reducing the need to produce new plastic from petroleum (Halton 2018).
Aluminium
Published in Peter Domone, John Illston, Construction Materials, 2018
Aluminium can in principle be recycled indefinitely, as remelting and refining results in no loss of its properties. Aluminium is also a cost-effective material to recycle, since it requires only 5% of the energy and produces only 5% of the CO2 emissions compared with primary production. Think of the demand for recycled drinks cans!
Aluminium
Published in Marios Soutsos, Peter Domone, Construction Materials, 2017
Aluminium can in principle be recycled indefinitely, as remelting and refining results in no loss of properties. Aluminium is also a cost-effective material to recycle, since this requires only 5% of the energy and produces only 5% of the CO2 emissions compared with primary production. Think of the demand for recycled drinks cans!
An overview of blade materials and technologies for hydrokinetic turbine application
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2023
Muhamad Hasfanizam Mat Yazik, Chang Wei Shyang, Mohammad Hafifi Hafiz Ishak, Farzad Ismail
Aluminum is a lightweight metal with density a third of steel but has a low tensile strength and less stiffness. It is usually used as testing materials due to its lower fatigue properties compared to steel (Campbell 2008). However, it offers better end-of-use value because it is easier to be recycled compared to other materials. Aluminum can be infinitely recycled without a loss in quality with 95% saving in production energy compared to its primary production (Jupp 2011). This can offset the decommissioning cost, thus aluminum offers a high commercial value along with its prolonged lifetime. Moreover, aluminum is rust free due to its natural oxide layer and can easily be inspected by visual means in addition to any other metal inspection methods. Aluminum can survive harsh marine conditions and can be kept unpainted in normal environmental conditions.
Recent advances in light metals and manufacturing for automotive applications
Published in CIM Journal, 2021
Both wrought and cast aluminum alloys are used in automotive applications as shown in Figure 1. However, the high costs of primary aluminum production and component manufacturing often limit the widespread usage of aluminum in the vehicle design. Aluminum can be recycled many times with exceptional recovery rates, where the energy required to produce secondary or recycled aluminum is only five percent of the energy used in the production of primary aluminum (Schlesinger, 2013). Such a reduction highlights strong economic and environmental benefits of utilizing recycled aluminum in production of parts for the automotive industry. Despite the promising outlook for the use of secondary aluminum, there is a cascade effect from continued recycling of aluminum, i.e., accumulation of alloying/impurity elements such as Fe, Mg, Cu, Zn, etc., due to the difficulty in removing them in the recycling process.
Packaging redesign – benefits for the environment and the community
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 2018
E. D. Georgakoudis, N. S. Tipi, C. G. Bamford
Traditional practices are about to change. As cited by Hildebrandt (2012), some bottling companies have started packing wine in aluminium cans in order to assist portability. In addition, the use of aseptic packaging in beverage applications has increased since this type of packaging allows the perishable and sensitive beverages (e.g. coconut water, exotic tropical fruit juices) to be transported by common transportation methods and be stored at ambient temperatures. Moreover, according to the same study, nearly 2/3 of the aluminium cans in circulation are recycled while this material appears to be lighter (less weight per shipment results in less fuel use which then results in less CO2 emissions that reduces cost). At the same time the production of recycled aluminium cans requires 95% less energy compared to those produced using virgin materials.