Design, production & ethical issues

Aluminium cans

Approximately 1 billion are produced in the USA each year. The first can was designed in 1958 by Kaiser Aluminium. This metal proved ideal as it was a lightweight, flexible material that allowed manufacturing of the bottom & sides of the can from a single sheet, leaving the top to be added after the can was filled.

The first cans were opened with a separate opener but this was inconvenient so Ermal Fraze designed a small lever attached to the can which was removed as the can was opened.

The design was workable but after a while it created an ethical dilemma:

First of all it was a human problem because discarded drink tabs were a health hazard, despite what has been going around over half a century; the recycling of used aluminium cans has been the driving force in the growth of the aluminium sector world-wide.

So in 1976 Daniel F. Cudzik invented a simple, stay-attached opener of the sort familiar today.

As improvements were made in the design & production of aluminium cans, various ethical problems arose concerning:

a. Human safety: Millions of pounds of aluminium are used in producing aluminium cans; they are melted and cast safely in the industry at their specific foundries all over the world. However, there are inherent hazards in virtually every activity. These hazards can be minimized or eliminated by careful attention to safe handling practices.

b. Environmental pollution: Each ton of alluminum cans requires 5 tons of bautxite ore to be crushed, washed, and produced as an alumina product; this process itself is considered as a threat in terms of enviromental pollution since it creates about 5 tons of caustic red mud residues which can seep into surface and ground water.

c. Convenience: Few beverage can technologies of the past decade have made as big a splash as have aluminium cans. Yet another convenience technology,  aluminium cans have helped the aluminum beverage industry regain some of the ground lost to the rise in popularity of polyethylene cans.

d. Money: Aluminium cans are the only container permitted in a couple of Asian countries such as Himalayas, Nepal because they are light and easy to crush. The local people who collect used aluminium cans also earn money from recycling the cans.