Why Burn the Cans, But Not the Aluminum Ones

Why Burn the Cans, but not the aluminum ones? 🥫

When I camp, I usually burn out the bimetallic food cans to remove the food residue, label and also the inside plastic coating. Burning them also weakens the steel, making it easier to flatten them and bring them home for recycling. They don’t melt or break down in a typical fire, so you can fully remove them for recycling. Water is limited, and no sense washing something out you can burn and knock the ash off them.

When I eventually own my own land, I’ll probably chuck them in the burn barrel or my farm incinerator to do the same thing, and pick them out for tossing on the scrap pile and recycling much the same way. Water is often a limited resource on off-grid homesteads, especially if you don’t have a while, I’d rather save it for drinking, prepping food and cleaning pots and pans.

I certainly do not advocate for burning up aluminum cans, aluminum foil or glass bottles. Aluminum, at least in bulk is a valuable recyclable commodity. Many states have deposit laws for beer cans. The problem with aluminum is it tends to melt in fires, becoming mixed in with the ash and unburnable debris in the fire. Once you burn it, really the only use for it is dump fill. Aluminum foil is a notorious backcountry polluter, I try to avoid it for camping cooking, and the rare case I do use it, I wash it and take it home for recycling. But I generally try to avoid it and will pack out any I find in the woods.

Glass is similar to aluminum. It shatters when it burns and becomes sharp pieces of glass that can cut hands, damage tires, cause injury and never really disappears. I try to avoid bringing glass to the back country and when I must, I always handle with care and wash out by hand and bring it home for recycling. Glass locally is recyclable but in many rural areas can be problematic. Glass can be reused for aggregate and certain other projects but often in it just ends up in the dump. Fortunately, less and less stuff is packaged in glass these days.