Tins and cans

Food tins and drinks cans are made from steel or aluminium. Both of these items can be turned into new tins and cans again and again without any loss of quality.

How are tins and cans recycled?

After being collected from your recycling bin, your tins and cans are transported to a sorting facility, where they are separated from other recyclable materials like paper, cardboard, plastic and glass. The metal types are then separated by magnets.

Aluminium items are then taken to a reprocessing facility where they are shredded into small pieces and heated to over 750 °C. The molten metal is poured into moulds, cooled with water and rolled into very thin sheets, ready to be made into new items.

Steel items are put into a furnace where molten iron is added. Oxygen is then blasted into the furnace which heats up to around 1700°C. The liquid metal is poured into a mould forming slabs which are then rolled into coils. These coils are used to make steel products such as bikes, cars, bridges, paperclips as well as new food and drink cans.