São Paulo – Aluminum beverage cans recycling rate in Brazil has reached 97.9% in 2015 with a total of 292,500 tons of recycled cans, almost the totality of containers put to sale in the country. The data was made available this Friday (28) by the Brazilian Aluminum Association (Abal) and by the Brazilian Association of Highly Recyclable Cans Manufacturers (Abralatas).
According to both organizations, the collection of the cans alone has pumped near BRL 730 million (USD 228.38 million) into the Brazilian economy. “The amount is equivalent to almost one million minimum-wage salaries per year, confirming the importance of recycling to job creation and income for the collectors of recyclable material”, said the coordinator of the Recycling Market Committee at Abal, Mario Fernandez.
According to the organization, the recycling of cans uses only 5% of power that would be required to produce new cans from the primary aluminum, obtained from bauxite. “The energy saved by recycling would meet the annual household energy demand of a state such as Goiás”, said Fernandez.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
