Rolling Over in his Grave: What Charles Martin Hall might think about aluminum wasting in the United States today. Jennifer Gitlitz Research Director Oberlin

Rolling Over in his Grave: What

Charles Martin Hall might think about aluminum wasting in the United States today.

CONTAINER RECYCLING INSTITUTE

CRI

Jennifer GitlitzResearch Director

Oberlin College

April 7, 2003

© Container Recycling Institute, 2003

Charles Martin Hall, 1863-1914

1885: graduated from Oberlin

1886: reduced aluminum from alumina, using cryolite as a solvent and electricity

1886: With backing from Alfred Hunt, founded the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, precursor to Alcoa

1889: Received patent

d.1914: Left Oberlin $10 million

Alcoa

$20.3 billion in gross revenues

Over $400 million in profit

Operating in 39 countries

Produced 3.5 million tons (MT) of aluminum

Owns 4 MT of smelter capacity =16% of world total (26 MT), 10% of which is idle

CEO Alain Belda’s compensation (2001): $13.9 million

Alcoa in 2002:


The Problem: Aluminum can waste is growing

1990: 594,420 tons 2001: 759,625 tonsGraph prepared using data from the Aluminum Association and the U.S. Department of Commerce. 1970 is a CRI estimate.

2.7

24.8

33.8

-

10

20

30

40

5019

70e

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2001

billi

on c

ans

50.7

…a 28% increase


Part of larger trend: Falling Container Recycling Rates

65.0%

54.5%49.2%

33.7%

26.3%27.5%

31.4%

53.2%

43.6%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

55%

60%

65%

70%

1992 1994 1996 1998 2000

Aluminum Cans

PET Bottles

Glass Bottles

All Three Materials


Trend has been driven by:

1) Growth in away-from-home consumption

2) Expanded, complex beverage market (complicates recycling education and collection programs)

3) Few new curbside or drop-off programs

4) Declining support and funding for recycling

5) Declining relative deposit value in 10 deposit states

6) Aluminum scrap value has not kept up with inflation


Aluminum wasting: not a landfill scarcity issue, but an issue of “replacement production” impacts

Loss of habitat, agricultural land, and indigenous ways of life as a result of strip-mining, building hydroelectric dams/reservoirs, and infrastructure

Bauxite & coal mining: soil erosion, water pollution

Local/regional air pollution. Replacing 760,000 tons of wasted cans, for example, generates: 75,000 tons of SOx and NOx (smog & acid rain) 15,800 tons of particulates (soot) >4,000 tons of toxic chlorides, fluorides, & organic compounds


Bauxite mining and alumina refining:

soil erosion, air and water pollution

•Mud pond from bauxite mining operation:

•4-5 tons of bauxite ore required for 1 ton of

aluminum ingot.

Photos: Dr. Robert Lancashire, University of the West Indies

Jamaica’s Kirkvine alumina refinery:2 tons of caustic red mud wastes per ton

of primary ingot, plus air emissions.


Cans and bottle wasting has disproportionate environmental impacts

Wasted energy: The energy required to replace these trashed cans was equivalent to 16 million barrels of oil: enough to keep a million American cars on the road for a year.

Litter: In a 1999 survey, the Solid Waste Coordinators of Kentucky found that 54% of all litter collected consisted of beverage containers, carriers, bottle caps and pull tabs.

Greenhouse gas emissions: Aluminum cans only comprise about 1.4% of a ton of garbage by weight, but they account for 14.1% of the greenhouse gas impacts of replacing an average ton of garbage with new products made from virgin materials.


Damage from can & bottle litter: $938 per farm per year

“There is little a community can do about drought or disaster, but we can do something positive about litter from beverage containers by supporting Jeffords' [national deposit] bill.”

• livestock deaths • crop losses • feed contamination • equipment damage• expensive clean-up

Source: Larry Breech, President of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union, in an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 21, 2002.


Aluminum smelting is electricity-intensive

Replacing one wasted can requires about 0.5 kWh of electricity: enough to light a 100-watt bulb for 5 hours, or to power an average laptop computer for 11 hours.

For every six-pack of beer or soda not recycled, the energy equivalent of one beverage can full of gasoline is squandered.


The Hydro-Aluminum connection

3 case studies:Volta River,GhanaJames Bay, QuebecAlcoa in Iceland


Ghana’s Akosombo Dam on the Volta River

Kaiser’s 200,000 ton smelter completed in 1965

Exacerbated waterborne diseases:schistosomiasis malariaonchocerciasis (river-blindness)

Flooded 8,300 km2 incl. tributaries & agric. lands 80,000 people from 740 villages relocated All alumina imported, few development benefits


Loss of agricultural areas

“Since we weren’t on a main river, we didn’t get any compensation from the

government. Our farms were flooded. Now we have to

farm in the hills…they are rocky and sandy.”


James Bay, Quebec

3 drainage basins: La Grande, Eastmain, Caniapiscau

11 dams, 208 dikes: unbroken chain of reservoirs

Flooded 11,250 km2

JB I: 15,743 MW

4 aluminum smelters: 885,000 TPY; 1,740 MW

Does not include 3 private Alcan dams (2,687 MW/1823 km2 flooded)


1984: 9,800 migrating caribou drowned in the Caniapiscau River

Quebec’s Eastmain River: before

…after 90% of its flow was diverted

Features of traditional life co-exist…

• Home to 16,000 Cree and Inuit• Methyl mercury in the food chain• Loss of ancestral hunting grounds• Inundation of graveyards• Cultural disintegration


Alcoa in Iceland

322,000 ton, $1.1B smelter to be completed in 2007--plus infrastructure

The International Rivers Network has called it “a Soviet-style restructuring of one of Iceland's most precious wilderness areas…”

Will submerge 22 square miles of tundra, including:Grazing habitat for over 2,000 reindeer

Nesting ground for the

pink-footed goose

Up to 60 waterfalls

Icelandic equivalent of the Grand Canyon

Cheap power tied to the global price of aluminum


Aluminum wasted in the U.S., 2001:

•760,000 tons of beverage cans… more than the combined annual capacity of

Kaiser’s Ghana smelter: 200,000 TPY Alcoa’s Iceland smelter: 320,000 TPY

Alcoa’s Deschambault 215,000 TPY smelter in Quebec:

735,000 TPY

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2.3 million tons of non-can aluminum were also wasted.


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Deposits can help halt the waste

The deposit is a proven financial incentive for recycling. Even in California, where the deposit is 2.5¢, the aluminum can redemption rate is 75% (and 69% for all containers)

The nation’s 10 deposit states achieve an average container recycling rate of 72%, versus 29% in 40 non-deposit states

In Michigan, the only state with a dime deposit, the redemption rate is 95%


The Effect of Deposit Laws on the UBC Recycling Rate, 1970-1990

California:1987

Massachusetts, New York:1983

Connecticut:1980

Oregon:1972

Vermont:1973

Maine:1978

Michigan, Iowa:1979

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%19

70

1974

1978

1982

1986

1990

Nat

ion

al A

lum

inu

m C

an R

ecyc

lin

g R

ate

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

Per

cent

of

U.S

. Pop

ulat

ion

Liv

ing

in D

epos

it S

tate

s

National Aluminum Can Recycling Rate

% of U.S. Population in Deposit States

Note: Dates reflect year of implementation. Sources: Graph prepared using information from the Aluminum Association and the Dept. of Commerce/U.S. Bureau of the Census. Container Recycling Institute, 2002.


“Bottle bills are popular and effective, yet special interest money has flowed straight from the bottle industry to congressional campaign coffers in order to end debate on the issue.”

-- Gene Karpinski Executive Director, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG)

Obstacles to passing more deposit laws: industry intimidation and spending


Lobbying against a national bottle bill

From 1989 -1994, more than $14 million was spent to defeat National Bottle Bill (NBB).

In 1992, Congressional candidates opposing an NBB received $3.4 million: more than in any single year.

In 1992, the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee voted 10-6 against the NBB.

Committee members who opposed an NBB received 75 times the campaign contributions as those in favor.

Source: US PIRG.

Cartoon from Joel Pett

© Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader, 2000.


The Happy Can

Focuses on recyclability, not actual recycling rate

Omits impacts of mining, smelting, etc.

The lightweighting myth: “less can, more filling”

Myth of community building…through municipal curbside programs and can drives


Voluntary mechanisms are insufficient

(¢/unit) (units) (billion units)

40 Non-Deposit States 1.25 191 38.2 49% (71% of U.S. Population)

10 Deposit States 1.53 490 40.0 51% (29% of U.S. Population)

Total or Average 1.31 278 78.2 100%

Container Recycling Institute, 2002

Source: Table ES-1, “Understanding Beverage Container Recycling: A Value Chain Assessment Prepared for the Multi-Stakeholder Recovery Project,” Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling (BEAR), Global Green USA, Jan. 2002.

(a) Includes revenues from material sales; does not include the forfeited deposit value of unredeemed containers.

Percent of U.S.

recovery

Total annual recovery

Per capita recovery

Net recovery cost (a)


Aluminum Can Recycling vs. Access to Curbside Programs, 1990-2000

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%19

90

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

Per

cen

t of

pop

ula

tion

wit

h c

urb

sid

e ac

cess

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Nat

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al A

lum

inu

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an R

ecyc

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g R

ate

Sources: Aluminum Association, U.S. Bureau of the Census, BioCycle.

1990: 2,711 curbsides37 million people served (15% of U.S. population)

1990: UBC recycling rate: 60.9%52.7 billion cans recycled33.8 billion cans wasted

2000: UBC recycling rate 54.5%;54.8 billion cans recycled,45.8 billion cans wasted

2000: 9,709 curbsides 140 million people served(50% of U.S. population)`


Who Pays?

Curbside recycling collection places an expensive burden on local governments.


Deposits: Real Corporate Responsibility

Deposits transfer the cost of disposing of discards--whether by recycling, landfills, or litter clean-up--from the taxpayer to the producer and consumer.

Are deposits “a 1970’s solution to a 1970’s problem”?

Or an early example of extended producer responsibility? (EPR)


Actual Constant (in today's $) Actual In today's $

Year ($/lb) ($/lb) tons billion lbs million $ billion $

1850 17.00 595.13

1888 8.00 191.16

1900 0.32 6.93

1914 0.19 3.42 283 5.22003 0.50 0.50 760,000 1.52 760 0.76

Price of aluminum Aluminum beverage cans (UBCs) wasted

in 2001

Value of wasted UBCs

What would Charles Martin Hall think?

Charles Martin Hall rolling over in

his grave…

$1,000/ton


1911 Ft. Myer Drive, Suite 702Arlington, Virginia 22209-1603Tel. (703) 276-9800 Fax (703) 276-9587www.container-recycling.org www.bottlebill.org

CONTAINER RECYCLING INSTITUTE

CRI

Container Recycling Institute

Jennifer GitlitzDirector of Research

Home office 2 Pomeroy AveDalton, MA 01602 Tel. (413) 684-4746Fax (928) 833-0460 [email protected]

Documents

Rolling Over in his Grave: What Charles Martin Hall might think about aluminum wasting in the United States today. Jennifer Gitlitz Research Director Oberlin