How many pieces of colorful foil-wrapped chocolate or sweet sugary treats encased in metallic wrappers do you think you've consumed in your life so far? One hundred seventy nine? Two hundred twenty four? Come on...let's be serious...don't forget about all those Valentine's Day, Easter and Christmas pig-out fests, plus gorging on remnants of your Halloweenapolooza spread. Oh, and then there's the office stash. Between what you've intentionally purchased on your own, received as a gift, and acquired through other avenues, that ends up being a whole lot of Hershey's kisses, mini peanut butter Reese's cups, cordial cherries, filled eggs and other assorted candies. Have you diligently collected all of the foil wrappers from every treat you've gobbled up and added the ginormous ball to your recycling container? If you nodded your head yes, then you should take a bow - seriously, well done! For the majority of us however, this is one area that we likely haven't given much thought to.
We're focusing specifically on candies wrapped in foil because it's so easy to dismiss the microscopic bit of foil that we peel off of them. Once we crumple up the shiny exterior sheet into a miniscule wad, it's out of sight, out of mind...but wait just a second, people. That's actually real metal we're throwing away - aluminum, to be exact - and as with so many other resources, it adds up over time. Used to create such consumer staples as beverage cans, fasteners, rolls of food wrap, cooking utensils, consumer electronics, vehicles, windows, street lighting poles, etc., one of the drawbacks to the material is that its production happens to consume a great deal of power. It makes perfect environmental sense that we would choose to recycle it - after all, the process utilizes a mere 5% of the energy necessary to smelt it in its raw state and it can be melted down indefinitely without degrading, but the Aluminum Association claims that every three months, US citizens throw out the same amount of the material that could effectively rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.
During World War II (from 1942 -1949), Hershey's had a tough time continuing the production of their silver wrapped kisses since aluminum was one of the raw materials being rationed at the time. Today, they use 133 square miles of foil on a daily basis to produce 80 million individual chocolate wrapped kisses -- and that's just one major candy producer in America. While increasingly more municipalities are accepting aluminum foil in their recycling programs along with soda cans (as long as all food remnants are thoroughly washed off), if your city hasn't yet gotten with the program, you still have a few creative alternatives. Smooth out foil squares from your sugary indulgences to create:
- art and craft projects such as scrapbooking, sculpture, card making, collage, etc. (or donate them to your local school district)
- a backdrop for your solar oven
- a simple cat toy that felines go crazy for (just crumple many sheets together and toss across the floor)
- individually wrapped love notes or lunchtime messages for children
- a way to amplify the heating effect of your household radiator (attach sheets to cardboard and tuck behind your unit)
- some pocket money - sell collected aluminum to a local scrap metal company
- an accent for many different DIY fashion accessories like purses & belts
- Christmas decorations
- a wad of foil (makes a great pot scrubber)
You might also want to consider emulating the efforts of German jewelry designer Iris Merkle and her line of Fingerglueck rings, which are constructed using a silver base wrapped in fanciful colored foil candy wrappers secured with epoxy resin. If you are inclined to purchase something from her collection, she offers a discount of 5 euros ($7.27 USD) to fellow recyclers who submit 5 grams of colored foil to her with their order.
Would you kindly share your recommendations on unique ways you've come up with to repurpose recycled aluminum in the household?
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