The furthest thing from a 21-year-old college student's mind as he dashes from the gas station with four cases of Natural Light, one in each hand, two more under arm, is the direct and avoidable environmental impacts that have ensued to deliver him 96 aluminum cans of glorified, glistening liquid courage.
He isn't thinking of the toxic mine tailings and solid wastes resulting from the mining of alumina oxide-rich clay, bauxite. Nor is he considering the caustic byproducts of extracting alumina ore from this clay. Chances are he isn't even aware that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the perfluorocarbons (PFCs) emitted during the final smelting process of alumina as having up to 9,200 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide. Few of his drinking buddies or the other 300 million Americans are aware of the irreversible impacts to global ecosystems so they can enjoy their favorite beverages with a sharp crack of the tab and tip of the can.
Smelting, the final step in the production of pure aluminum, is the most energy-intensive industrial process in the world. Smelting is the phase of aluminum production resulting in the greatest release of hazardous air emissions and greenhouse gases.
"Six years ago there used to be 11 smelter operations in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Now just two are left," said James Sines, high performance work organization coordinator for Alcoa's Ferndale, Wash. plant.
The two remaining smelter operations of the Northwest, both owned by Alcoa, are located in Ferndale and Wenatchee, Wash. These plants survived because of the inexpensive power created by the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River.
According to the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), the aluminum industry utilizes 2 percent of all global energy produced. The Ferndale smelter is capable of producing 278,000 tons of pure aluminum each year. However, due to the rising cost of energy, the smelter is only operating at 33 percent of its full capacity, producing approximately 90,000 tons per year. The Ferndale Alcoa plant at full capacity utilizes a constant flow of 470 megawatts, Sines said. Current operation at one-third capacity is using between 160 and 170 megawatts. The electricity used by this single Alcoa plant in one year at one-third of its possible capacity could power the entire Western Washington University campus for 39 years.
"Pure alumina ore, Al2O3, is one of the most stable compounds in the world," Lunzer said. "That's why it takes so much electricity to break it apart to get the oxygen off so you have pure aluminum."
Alcoa is the world's second leading producer of primary aluminum and alumina ore. The company has 129,000 employees in 43 countries whose combined efforts generated revenues exceeding $26 billion in 2005. Both Washington plants specialize in producing primary aluminum utilizing virgin materials as opposed to secondary aluminum that utilizes reclaimed scrap and used beverage containers.
"Alumina ore is one of the most plentiful raw materials in the world, but it must first be mined from bauxite," Alcoa plant metallurgist Scott Lunzer said.
The first droplets of pure aluminum weren't produced until the early 1800s with the advent of electricity. This is because of the refining and extraction process that this bauxite clay must undergo in order to produce the pure aluminum and aluminum alloys widely used today.
According to CRI, two-thirds of the world's bauxite supply comes from Australia, Guinea, Jamaica and Brazil. Extraction via strip mining sets the production of aluminum into motion, and is also the first of the many environmental impacts endured in producing the metal.
The open pit strip mining requires the complete removal of vegetation and topsoil. The high rainfall of the tropics causes severe erosion into streams and waterways.
Mined bauxite contains 45 to 60 percent alumina ore. Two pounds of alumina ore are refined from 4 to 5 pounds of bauxite, according to the International Rivers Network. The remaining insoluble byproduct, a caustic sludge called red mud, poses severe environmental problems.
Typically dumped into excavated mine pits, the sludge has a history of seeping into groundwater aquifers, contaminating waterways and local drinking supplies.
Primary aluminum manufacturing releases dangerous gases which are hazardous to both human and environmental health. Additionally, approximately half of the electricity required to power smelting in the United States is coal-generated, according to CRI. Eight tons of combustion-related CO2 are emitted for every ton of primary aluminum produced.
The electricity needed for the smelting process comprises 25 to 35 percent of aluminum's total expense. As a result, it is cost effective to ship alumina ore halfway around the world from where it is mined and processed to take advantage of cheap power. Lunzen explained that the Ferndale smelter receives all of its alumina from Australia.
Energy prices in the western United States skyrocketed in the fall of 2000. In the wake of the rolling blackouts 10 Pacific Northwest smelters utilizing hydroelectricity from the Columbia River dams were hit hard. The federal Bonneville Power Administration refused to renew the subsidized long-term contracts, and all but two were forced to close down.
As electricity here becomes more expensive, multinational aluminum companies are shutting down large numbers of their existing smelters and seeking development of new ones in regions with cheap, subsidized power.
"We have no choice," Sines said. "We have to be efficient. We're paying more for power than anywhere else in the world. We're paying more for electricity from hydro dams than [smelter operations] are on the east coast with coal. For us to be able to compete with China and everywhere else we have to be the most efficient."
Alcoa's Ferndale plant has set the benchmark for pollution control, Sines said, lowering emissions to one-third of most U.S. plants in recent years. However, the release of perflourocarbons (PFCs), C2F6 and CF4, is a serious issue at other plants with older emissions technologies. These very rare fluoride gases are not produced in any other known industrial or natural process. Unlike other greenhouse gases PFCs are not broken down by combustion, sunlight or reaction with other atmospheric gases. While only three pounds of these vapors are released per ton of aluminum produced, the EPA rates them as having global warming potentials of 6,500 and 9,500 times that of carbon dioxide.
It helps to reuse aluminum. Unfortunately, the recyclable aluminum can isn't always recycled.
"With the beverage container, you buy it and it's mobile, you can go all over the place with it. The trick is getting people to hang on to them until they find a bin," said Richard Neyer, Western's Associated Student recycling coordinator.
Western's collection of 5,000 pounds of recycled aluminum last year was the lowest amount in seven years.
According to the IRN, if the 96 cans contained in the four cases of beer are recycled they will require 95 percent less electricity to become cans again than if they are replaced by new cans made from virgin materials. These cans alone can save enough energy to power a laptop computer for 40 days straight.
When our 21-year-old college student and all his buddies awaken from their drunken stupor the next morning, they face two choices: trash all the empty cans they smashed against one another's foreheads, or find a recycle bin.