When your recycling is collected, it is taken to a MRF or a Material Recycling Facility. These facilities then sort through the tonnes and tonnes of recycling that people put out for collection. These include things such as newspapers, plastic drink bottles, shampoo bottles and cardboard.

Your aluminium cans will be separated out from all the other recycling and baled in one large pile of Aluminium cans.

In Australia, all baled aluminium beverage cans from all states and territories are transported to one facility in NSW. This is a melting facility, or smelter. Here they are melted down and turned into aluminium ingots. These ingots are then heated to 500 degrees Celsius and rolled into sheets of aluminium just 2.5mm thick.

From here they are taken to a can making facility and new aluminium cans are made!