How To Recycle In Commercial And Institutional Facilities

Always Rinse Food Cans

Steel cans (and other recyclable food containers) must be rinsed for basic sanitation because they are usually stored for a period of time before they are picked up or delivered for recycling. Rinsing only requires the removal of most food particles.

It is important, however, to rinse cans and other containers without wasting water. No one wants to exchange one precious resource for another.

To make the best use of water already used in the kitchen, rinse steel cans in leftover dishwater used to wash pots and pans. Or run them through an automatic dishwasher in available empty space.

Flatten the Cans for Storage

Steel cans may be flattened manually or mechanically to reduce their volume so that they can be more efficiently stored and economically transported.

For manual flattening, trim the bottom end from the rinsed can in the same way that the lid was removed. Step on the body of he open-ended can to flatten it for storage. Lids have sharp edges, but can be stored in an empty can until it is fully of lids. This can may then be crimped or taped shut for carrying to storage.

Mechanical flattening is done with a specially designed machine, which effectively flattens all sizes of metal cans (with the bottom end intact).

Recycle Through Local Options

Commercial businesses and institutions should contact their waste hauler to negotiate arrangements that provide for the recycling of steel cans and other materials. This normally means that the hauler provides and services a container for the recyclables. The cost of this service should be balanced against the incremental revenue from the scrap value of the recyclables and avoided solid waste removal costs.

An alternative is to work with a ferrous scrap processor or independent recycler. Arrangements may be made to have steel cans (and other materials being recycled) picked up, or to deliver them to a scrap yard or recycling facility when a suitable load is accumulated.

From Cans to Coasters: Busch Gardens Completes Loop, Recycles Steel Cans

Visitors can enjoy the thrills of steel roller coasters, knowing that steel cans and other containers are being collected for recycling at the park.

The Loch Ness Monster. The Big Bad Wolf. Drachen Fire. Each summer, Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia draws more than two million people to its famed steel roller coasters, as well as to its crafts, ethnic food, and other attractions.

The latest addition to the park is not among its more than 30 rides, however. Beginning April 1993, steel cans have been a welcome addition to the park’s commercial/institutional recycling program. Employees collect steel cans from food service and maintenance facilities.

Food service employees empty and rinse steel food and beverage cans to prepare them for recycling. The cans are then collected in containers at the generation points. Park personnel empty the containers into one of two 30-yard trailers for steel cans.

“Recyclable one-gallon steel food cans are generated from food preparation areas throughout the park,” said Leslie Migliozzi, environmental manager for Busch Gardens. “We also use a significant amount of steel aerosol cans containing paints and lubricants for general maintenance. We are pleased to be able to include these empty containers in our recycling program as well.”

Employees transport partially empty and empty steel aerosol cans to one of two maintenance buildings. There, equipment is used to puncture the cans to ensure that any partially full aerosol cans are drained. The maintenance department than transports the empty aerosol cans to the same trailers that contain steel food cans.

Chambers Waste Systems hauls the trailers of steel cans back to its materials recovery facility in Newport News, Virginia. There, the Point, Maryland for processing and shipment to Bethlehem Steel, also in Sparrows Point.