We are often asked why we prefer aluminum over steel for trailers and why All Aluminum Trailers are actually a GREEN product. In this post we will examine what makes aluminum trailers green and why.
We have already looked at Why Aluminum, the benefits of aluminum trailers, the maintenance of steel vs. aluminum trailers and the strength of steel vs. aluminum trailers but today we are going to looker closer at the green aspects of aluminum trailers, truck bodies, fire and rescue bodies, and boxes.
So what does it mean to be a green product? For a material to really be considered green, it should have:
So what exactly makes aluminum a green material? Aluminum is recyclable, sustainable, and versatile. These three qualities are key for any material being used to construct a green product. Over time, aluminum has proven to be one of the most important materials in a successful recycling program.
Aluminum offers:
Aluminum Recycling is viewed as a closed loop that carries the material from the point-of-purchase to the end user and from the consumer (when the product is discarded) to collection, sorting and processing, fabrication, and eventually back to the consumer as a finished product. While it may be nice that the aluminum material is recyclable, ultimately the material must find its way back to a viable end use.
Landfills will eventually lack additional capacity so it will be necessary to reduce the solid waste stream. Aluminum recycling diverts significant amounts of the aluminum material for reuse. Businesses and policy makers are often driven by the economic factors of recycling. Recycling of aluminum saves money because the raw material recaptured by recycling costs less than the aluminum materials derived through mining.
Energy conservation is becoming a necessity for environmental and economic reasons. Aluminum recycling saves 95 percent of the energy required to produce aluminum from raw materials. Conserving these natural resources is the right thing to do and is important.
It takes four pounds of raw bauxite ore to produce one pound of aluminum. Every pound of recycled aluminum saves four pounds of ore.
Aluminum has proven to be one of the most important materials in successful recycling programs. Aluminum offers high scrap value, widespread consumer acceptance, and aluminum recycling enjoys significant industry support.
All aluminum trailers, truck bodies, fire bodies, rescue bodies, truck toppers and poppers and forms of aluminum can be recycled, from aluminum foil to automobile parts, aluminum extrusions and aluminum trailers. Storm doors, window frames, and aluminum ladders are among the more common household extrusions that can be recycled, but large items such as rail cars and trailers can yield an especially impressive financial return when harvested for scrap.
The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) reports that the chief executive of a prominent primary metals producer recently cited the fact that, when hundreds of all-aluminum railcars had been returned to the company in 1993 at the end of their 25-year lease, the value of the recycled metal was equal to 90 percent of the original manufacturing cost!
Aluminum can be recycled and reused over and over. Even through this continued recycling, aluminum doesn’t lose any of its characteristic attributes. Simply stated, there is no loss of quality in using recycled aluminum.
In addition to recyclability aluminum has other eco-friendly qualities:
So how do aluminum trailers fit into the green movement? From design and construction to the liftetime nature of the all aluminum trailers, aluminum trailers use less resources while reducing impact on people’s health and the environment.
Aluminum Trailers are the Material of Choice for a Greener World.
