Most beer and soda products are now available in bottles (generally plastic) or aluminium cans. Your drink cans need to be emptied and cleaned before recycling. If you put them in the recycle bin, don’t put them in boxes – the sorting process will be faster if they are loose.
Most states now offer a Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) allowing Citizens to get a refund for recycling specified containers. Check your local cash for containers for locations and what is accepted.
If you have a choice among beverage containers, always choose a recyled product if you can. Then, choose in order: aluminium, glass, plastic. All are generally recyclable, but the aluminium recycles far more efficiently.
If you have a choice between an imported product and a local product, ditch the travel miles and buy local.
In the initial production, Aluminium is extracted from bauxite ore. The process is expensive and damaging to the environment as it requires land and soil clearing. However, once made, aluminium is infinitely recyclable without degradation of quality.
Over 2 billion aluminium cans are recycled annually into new aluminium which saves a tremendous amount of energy that would have otherwise been spent mining for bauxite. Recycling aluminium cans uses just 5% of the energy used to produce new aluminium and generates just 5% of the amount of greenhouse gases.
Across many countries around the world special vending machines will give you credit - money or vouchers for returned bottles and cans.