Recycling Systems - Facts and Figures

The following figures provide an insight into the effectiveness of the GPA recycling system and the incredible environmental benefits such a system provides:

a graph of the amount of containers recycled
graph of the total amount of containers recycled from 8 events - 742000 containers in all
graph of the energy saved from recycling 742,000 cotainers - equivalent to running 92,750 televisions sets for 24 hours
total tonnes of Bauxite conserved is 54.84 by recycling 742,000 containers
total tonnes of aluminium recycled is 13.14 by recycling 742,000 containers

What the punters say about the system (from the Splendour in the Grass 2008 Online Forum):

  • “25 drink tickets, over 100 cans, only took me like an hour yew, best idea ever”
  • “Yep. You front up, ask for a bag and then go fill it up. Then hand in for ticket goodness. It took no time at all... I bet you appreciate not having to dance in a 50cm high tent full of cans!!”
  • “It took me about a minute to pick up 30 cans for 6 vouchers, immediately after a set. That's equivalent to $1800 an hour for that 60 seconds. Yeah, I'll take that”
  • “it has to have been the most cleanest festival I’ve ever seen”
  • “Hear hear! Couldn't believe how clean the grounds were leaving at Sunday night”
  • “My boyfriend and I did the drink can collection thing. Doing our bit for the environment, keeping our splendour dancing ground clean whilst enjoying our rewards”

Aluminium Can Recycling

Did you know?

  • In 2002/03, 38,900 tonnes of Aluminium was recovered for recycling in Victoria alone.
  • Australians consumed over 3 billion aluminium cans in 2002.
  • Aluminium can be continually recycled for example, of the 680 million tonnes of Aluminium produced in the world since 1886; approximately 440 million tonnes are still in use!
  • Recycling aluminium saves a significant amount of energy. Making aluminium cans from recycled aluminium uses only 5% of the energy needed to make the cans from the raw materials such as bauxite.
  • By recycling 1 aluminium can you are saving enough energy to run your TV for 3 hours.

History of aluminium

Today we think of aluminium as a familiar and common metal. Yet unlike metals such as iron, bronze and copper, it has only been possible to make aluminium since the early to mid-nineteenth century. Aluminium has only been used for drink cans in Australia for about 20 years.

Australia has large reserves of bauxite, the ore from which aluminium is made, and is the world's fifth largest producer of aluminium. In 2001, Australia mined 53.2 million tonnes of bauxite and produced over 1.7 million tonnes of aluminium.

Manufacture from recycled materials

Aluminium cans that have been collected for recycling are first sorted and then baled into bricks. The bricks are transported to processing plants where they are fed into rotary furnaces which melt the aluminium in temperatures as high as 780 Co. The molten material is 'topped up' with other metals like magnesium, so that is the right consistency to make new beverage cans. The molten aluminium is then cast into ingots which are sent to rolling mills where they are remade into new cans. In some cases, the recycled cans are reprocessed into other aluminium products, such as cooking foil and lightweight car parts.

Used aluminium cans that are recycled in Australia are usually recycled back into cans. The aluminium does not 'degrade' during the recycling process, which means it can be recycled over and over again. The energy needed to make one new aluminium can is the same as the energy needed to recycle twenty aluminium cans.

Source: EcoRecycle Victoria