RECYCLING OF AUTOMOTIVE ALUMINUM - PRESENT AND FUTURE

The economic incentive for recycling automotive aluminum is high because scrap value on a unit weight basis is currently about seven times that of steel. With projected increases in usage in cars aluminum could become the material with the highest aggregate value in the car. Scrap is projected to increase to 1400-1975 million pounds per year by 1995 with about 70% in the form of castings. Auto salvagers can increase aluminum recovery and value by dismantling and segregating more of the aluminum rather than shredding it with steel. Recycling aluminum to ingot requires only 5% of the energy necessary to produce ingot from bauxite and reduces the 94% dependency of the U. S. on imports.