Can I Recycle Aluminum Foil?
Can I Recycle Aluminum Foil?
In most communities, aluminum soda cans and beer cans are accepted and encouraged for recycling. But what about stuff like Reynolds Wrap or those aluminum foil takeout pans? Can you recycle aluminum foil? (Some people call it “tin foil,” but it’s actually aluminum.)
The answer is, you might be able to recycle your aluminum foil, but it depends on a few factors. Here’s the deal:
As with all types of recycling, I recommend that you check with your community rules, because every location is different. But in general, if you use a single-stream / commingled system (all your recyclables go in one big bin), you probably need to leave out the aluminum foil. If your program has you separate metals into their own bin or bag, you might be able to include aluminum foil, but still check and see whether it is accepted.
But don’t despair, because there are other ways to recycle your foil besides through your curbside program. Keep reading!
What makes foil different from cans?
Because of the way we separate truckfuls of recyclables, the shape and density of an item has as much to do with its recyclability as the material it is made out of. The sorting facilities use a series of spinning discs and bouncing conveyers that cause various materials to separate themselves, but they are really only designed to work on the common items that make up the most valuable recycled materials.
Bottles, cans and paper can be separated from one another fairly easily. But any other weirdly-shaped items can really gunk up the works. Loose aluminum foil will get tangled in the spinners. A tightly crushed ball of foil will not act like an aluminum can and will end up who-knows-where.
[ Related: What Happens at a Materials Recovery Facility? ]
Add to this the fact that some aluminum foil used in candy and wrappings have problematic coatings and decorations, foil may contain caked on food that most people don’t bother to clean off, and the fact that there are so many different alloys of aluminum out there, most manufacturers don’t want them mixed together.
What is an alloy?
An alloy is when another type of metal is mixed together with the primary metal to give it a different strength, hardness, flexibility, etc.
But there IS a way to recycle foil.
Many metal recyclers will take aluminum foil. Yes, taking it to a recycler is extra work, but for most of us, this is probably our only option for recycling metals that aren’t standard food and beverage cans. And if you gather enough, you can even make a little cash!
So if you hate to throw it in the trash, you can keep a bin or box for collecting scrap pieces of metal, tins and cans that aren’t accepted in your regular recycling (like cookie, coffee and tea tins) and aluminum foil.
Earth911 even has a handy locator tool to find metal recyclers near you that accept aluminum foil. (However it’s still recommended to call ahead and see if that info is current.)
Tips to properly recycle your foil:
- Make sure it is as clean as you can make it. If it is caked with food and/or grease, soak it in some soapy water and scrub it as clean as you can.
- Let it dry, then crumple it up into a ball.
- If the foil is combined with other coatings, or is lining some other material like cardboard, and if it can’t be cleanly separated from the non-aluminum, you shouldn’t try to recycle it.
- When you take metals to a scrap metal recycler, it’s helpful to separate them into three groups: ferrous metals (a magnet sticks to these), foil, and the other non-ferrous metals.
- If you want to figure out whether the trip is financially worth your while, the scrap metal recycler can tell you what they are paying per pound on your metal types and you can weigh them yourself to see what you should make.
