Aluminum Cans

BKJ (Earth), 2014

Humans throw so much away with so little thought as to where that trash is going and how it affects us in the future. In my Design and Engineering course, we were assigned to collect samples of a product that was being wasted and assemble the samples into a visual representation of an issue. The purpose of this action project was to create something that represents and illustrates a global issue we are facing: material waste. Our waste material was aluminum, particularly aluminum cans. I learned and appreciate trial and error and I am proud of the way my partner and I worked together.

A beverage can is a metal container designed to hold a fixed portion of liquid such as carbonated soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, fruit juices, teas, herbal teas, energy drinks, etc. Beverage cans are made of aluminum (75% of worldwide production) or tin-plated steel (25% worldwide production)(Wikipedia).

Aluminum is a slippery-white metal and the second most abundant metallic element in the earth's crust. It weighs about 1/3 as much as steel, and is remarkable for its excellent corrosion resistance, durability, ability to be easily machined or cast and its volumetric mass density (density) (Wikipedia). Some of the uses for aluminum are in electrical transmission, packaging, and transportation.

Here are some interesting facts about aluminum waste from Lehighcounty: 

• It takes about 80-200 years for an aluminum can to biodegrade.
• In 2012, 55 percent of aluminum beer and soft drink containers generated were recycled, which is about 0.7 million tons.
• The largest source of aluminum in the MSW (municipal solid waste) stream is used beverage containers and other packaging containers.
• There is no limit to the amount of times aluminum can be recycled. 
• It is estimated that over the past twenty years, we've trashed more than 11 million tons of aluminum beverage cans worth over $12 billion on today's market.
• Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.

"Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks Are Harming America's Health ~ CSPI." Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks Are Harming America's Health ~ CSPI. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. 

Our installation shows a model earth made almost entirely out of aluminum beverage cans, glue, strings, and a Styrofoam ball as our base. Our installation depicts a model earth with silver representing water, green and brown representing earth. The strings represents how many times the total number of aluminum cans wasted in 2012 would go around the earth. There are 5 string around our earth installation, each string represents 7385.285408 times the number of cans goes around the earth. This piece was inspired by the amount of soda cans our school wastes each year, which is roughly about 29,850 aluminum cans. On average, a person will use 597 cans of soda pop each year.

BKJ and GN (Earth), 2014

BKJ and GN (Earth), 2014

Logistics for cans used in our installation:
2 Diet coca cola cans
7 Root beer cans
4 Sprite cans
1 Coca cola cans
1 Sparking water can
* All of our materials comes from either staffs or students from GCE (Global Citizenship Experience).

Calculations: 
On average each American drinks 597 cans of soda a year. The average life expectancy of an American in 2012 was about 78 years (World Bank). This means that over a lifetime, an American would drink 46566 cans of soda. In 2012, the United States population was 312,780,968 (US. News). Number of aluminum cans of soda drank in 2012: 312,780,968 x 46566 = 1.456495856e13 (14,564,958,560,000 cans).

Amount of times the number of aluminum cans went around earth calculations: 
- Earth's circumference: 24,901 miles.
- Conversion to miles/space: 14,564,958,560,000 cans x 4 (height of a can) x 12 ft/5280 = 919504959.6 miles
- Number of times United States' waste of 2012 goes around the earth: 919504959.6 miles/24,901 miles (circumference of earth) = 36926.42704 times.

Recycling is an important part of a sustainable lifestyle and is a solution to this aluminum waste problem. It’s important for the future of the planet that we all live sustainably. Recycling aluminum saves an enormous amount of energy, because the aluminum is already in its metallic state. Recycling was a low-profile activity until the late 1960's when the growing use of aluminum cans brought it to the public's attention.

Here are some facts about the importance of recycling aluminum:

• Tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can's volume of gasoline.
• Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours, this is the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.
• Making beverage cans from recycled aluminum cuts air pollution by about 95%.
• The pollutants created in producing one ton of aluminum include 3,290 pounds of red mud, 2,900 pounds of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), 81 pounds of air pollutants and 789 pounds of solid wastes.

Works Cited:

1. "Aluminum Recycling Facts." Aluminum Recycling Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.
2. "Aluminum, Common Wastes & Materials." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014. 
3. Aluminium. (2014, October 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:47, October 24, 2014.
4. "Chemical of the Week -- Aluminum." Chemical of the Week -- Aluminum. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. 
5. "Aluminum Statistics and Information." USGS Minerals Information: Aluminum. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. 
6. "Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks Are Harming America's Health ~ CSPI." Liquid Candy: How Softdrinks Are Harming America's Health ~ CSPI. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
7. Robert Schlesinger. "U.S. Population 2012: Nearly 313 Million People." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 30 Dec. 2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2014. 
8. "Life Expectancy at Birth, Total (years)." Data. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.