That aluminium can be economically recycled, and has been since it became commercially available more than a century ago, is a well-established fact. As a used material it retains a positive monetary value, unlike many other packaging materials which can cost money for disposal. The metal remains substantially intact in terms of volume and, for one twentieth of its original extraction cost, can be re-melted to become new metal ready for its next task. Several successful national schemes for the collection and recovery of used beverage cans (for the production of more beverage cans) represent clear evidence that aluminium packaging materials can be recycled with outstanding success.
Modern molten metal filtration techniques keep quality high, and the aluminium companies greatly value this rich source of secondary metal which is available at such a comparatively low energy cost.