07-29-2015, 06:54 PM
There is the final processed wholesale value, which can vary from 90 cents per pound to $1.50 per pound. (Atlus paying $2 per pound for scrap shows how big the government recycling subsidy is)
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Al...5.1.jdOXm7
The recycle scrap value on the commodity market is about 35 cents a pound. From that, it looks like it is a pretty good profit but that doesn't take into account the processing performed by the actual recycler, an aluminum smelter. Aluminum scrap has a lot of slag. A can has to be lined in a thin layer of plastic, otherwise the corrosive liquids would combine into all kinds of awful tastes, for anybody that has drank from military surplus uncoated aluminum canteens knows. It takes about the same amount of electricity to melt similar volumes of ore and scrap aluminum. The slag from ore is more easily separated than from scrap.
There is no economic benefit from recycling other than creating government subsidized employment and a small export income, far offset by the taxes required to keep recycling going. A waste-to-energy plant just uses it all for fuel, produces syngas which can be sold for a profit while producing electricity for the plant and net metering surplus for sale, while still producing recyclable heavy metal ingots. Sorting and shipping goes down to almost zero. This doesn't mean there wouldn't be jobs. Feeding the plant would take labor, the grinding machinery would need operation and maintenance, plant operators, the plant paying their salaries. The big thing though is that recycling taxes would decrease in those areas that have waste-to-energy plants. Well, that is what could have been.
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*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*