Steel and Aluminium exists in the large quantities throughout Britain. Their uses and usefulness were discovered hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. Longevity, malleability, strength and conductivity - their properties have been used over the ages to provide us with the many goods we see today. they may be found in the items as varied as cars, computers, buildings and packaging. although consumption of steel has dropped since 1970's, aluminium use is still growing. Metals may remain for many years as viable products and so the environmental effects of their production will be lessened relative to using less durable materials.
World primary production of aluminium is around 24 million tonnes on average a yaer. The largest producer of aluminium is Australia, althoug other producer countries include Jamaica, Brazil, Guinea, China and parts of Europe. World crude steel production stood at over 1.1 billion tonnes in 2006. This represented a worldwide increase in production of over 9% campared to 2005. Excluding China, world production rose by 4.5% - 5% in 2006.
WHY BOTHER TO RECYCLE?
Metals can be recycled indefinitely without loosing any of their properties. They make up around 8% of the average household rubbish yet in 2006 the recycling rates for aluminium and ferrous metals as a percentage of their consumption were only 33% and 26% respectively.