scope:

Aluminum recycling is both economically sound and ecologically advantageous. Recovered aluminum is readily marketable to scrap processors and users.

In addition to the important energy savings cited in the Preface, recycling aluminum has lower capital requirements for a given output of ingot. Also, the time savings in the conversion of raw material to finished product are significant.

Saving of foreign exchange is another important by-product of recycling, since a large part of the raw materials currently employed for virgin aluminum production are imported. Reserves of bauxite, the ore of aluminum, also are conserved by recycling.

Aluminum scrap enters the supply stream of industry through two major, broadly classified sources: purchased scrap and "run-around" or "home" scrap. Run-around scrap is that which is generated by producers of mill products, or by foundries, and is recovered or recycled by these same producers. Scrap classified in this category never leaves the company generating it and, hence, is never marketed as scrap. Aluminum scrap consumption and recovery statistics, such as those published by the U.S. Bureau of Mines, do not include a measurement of run-around scrap.