ABSTRACT
Although public support for recycling as a means of achieving social goals is widespread, in the end recycling is not a religious activity. It is not carried out by people who are trying to save the planet. Recycling is carried out by people and organizations who are trying to earn a prot. They face competition from other recyclers and from producers of primary material and do not control the price of their product. Their success depends on their ability to purchase raw materials at the lowest possible price and process them at the lowest possible cost. As a result, the economics of recycling is an important part of the secondary aluminum story and one that is critical to understanding the choices of processing strategy described in the next few chapters. The discussion will include both the cost of what recyclers use and the value of what they produce.
