South America's second-largest economy after Brazil. There's more than altruism involved. Recycling can be good business. To produce a ton of aluminum from scratch requires 5 tons of bauxite and 16,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. With recycling, you need a ton of old cans and just 750 kilowatt-hours of electricity, a boon for a country straining to meet electricity demand.
Aluminum cans are relatively new to Brazil.
They were introduced only in 1990, when the Skol brewery began using them to provide a smaller, more convenient alternative to the traditional 22-ounce glass bottles. It's starting to penetrate the middle class. A full-time can collector can earn up to five times the minimum wage. Thanks to cans, Carola is now what the Brazilian government calls a microbusinessman. Still, the aluminum industry wants to move beyond reliant on the professional trash collectors.