Tin Foil in the Trash (recycling, costs, energy, garbage)
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When it was ready, took it out of the tin foil lined, tin foil cover pan, put it on the cutting board, then took the pan out to the garbage bin and tossed foil and grease in.
So here's the question: is there another way to handle that so the tin foil doesn't go to the land fill?
I just dump the grease out, wad the foil up clean-side out and put it in the salvage bin. The residue all burns up when they melt it down anyways, so why waste the water?
I just dump the grease out, wad the foil up clean-side out and put it in the salvage bin. The residue all burns up when they melt it down anyways, so why waste the water?
Please, don't overthink it.
The problem with that is that the grease will attract undesirable creatures like rats, raccoons and opossums. That's why I rinse it.
The recycling company servicing my city doesn't accept aluminum foil, so it goes into the garbage can. However, my city has a waste-to-energy plant which reduces garbage to ash, then they sift through the ash for metals, then the remainder goes to a landfill (reduced by about 90%).
If "tin foil" was actually made of tin, scavengers would be snapping it up.
Okay, so I am lazy. I didn't want to type out "aluminum" (or have to look it up if I misspelled it). "Tin Foil", however, is what it is popularly known as, at least in the decades past.
Aluminum is the third most abundant element on Earth. It's re-cycled not to conserve the supply, but because it costs 95% LESS to re-cycle than to mine & refine fresh material.
total world production of Al is ~50 million tons/yr, while Al foil is only ~800,000 tons (<2% of total production. Al cans account for 3million tons/yr (6%).
I wouldn't lose any sleep over this non-problem. If you re-cycle your dirty Al foil, you deserve a cookie and a participation ribbon.
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