Overall, how bad/good for the environment is aluminum foil? Better than plastic wrap? Wax paper? Etc.?

Question

How much energy is required to manufacture it? Under what conditions is it mined? Is it recycled generally? In general, is it green or not?

Answer 1

Depends on what you do with it. If you recycle it, it's definetly better than anything non-metal, because it can simply be melted down and reshaped into something else (even back to aluminum foil). If you throw it in the trash, then it's the same as anything else.

Answer 2

In general I don't think it's green. Most recycling plants will not accept aluminum foil, only cans and other objects.
I think it's cheaper to make (per pound) than plastic wrap or wax paper. No facts there, just assumption, considering that mining and melting thin aluminum sheets is pretty straighforward compared to making plastic film (petroleum derivatives) or wax paper (tree pulp and wax).

Answer 3

Aluminum is cheaper to reproduce/recycle than produce from raw material.No aluminum should go to waste and thus recycler and aluminum purchaser pay top dollar for recycle aluminum.

Answer 4

Aluminium is about the only thing which is profitable to recycle. We should always recycle drink cans and foil.

The original aluminium smelting process is quite polluting, I think. But the recycling is easy, cheap and cleaner.

nice question

Answer 5

aluminum is totally recycleable. whereas plastic wrap leaves a nasty odor on food and is much more difficult to recycle.

plus you can make a nice hat out of it.

Answer 6

>i recognize the suited answer to this question! Squeeze some lemon juice on the apple, this has diet c that is an anti-oxidant and could inhibit the enzyme that causes browning.

Answer 7

I just know that it keeps the Aliens and The Government from reading my thoughts and anything that can do that can't be bad.