Not to cast doubt on this, but how are aluminum cans recycled if they're also plastic, which is somewhat notorious for not being recyclable? Honest question here, as I sip from an aluminum can.

[–] Pulptastic@midwest.social 21 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Aluminum is recycled by melting it. Plastic burns off long before the aluminum melts. The residue might contaminate the aluminum but there are ways to remove that in the melt.

[–] ByteSorcerer@beehaw.org 6 points 4 days ago

This is true, and when people talk about recycling aluminium cans they're actually only talking about recycling the aluminium in those cans. The liner is not recycled.

However it's a relatively small amount of plastic, and burning it while melting the metal does prevent it from ending up as plastic pollution. So aluminium cans are still better than non-recycled plastic packaging.