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A comment on Microsoft Puts Free Portable WiFi In Forbes Magazine Print Issues. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft Puts Free Portable WiFi In Forbes Magazine Prin... by jlgreco on Monday April 29, 2013 @02:16PM (#5627760)
Isn't aluminum particularly profitable to recycle, even with a low recovery, since it requires absurd amounts of power to smelt the stuff in the first place?

Aluminum is incredibly abundant in the earth's crust, but from what I understand it is the poster-boy for recycling because of the extreme difference in power costs between melting it down, and making it in the first place.

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Re:Microsoft Puts Free Portable WiFi In Forbes Magazine Prin... by sageikosa on Monday April 29, 2013 @03:38PM (#5628191)
I was going to mention that much earlier...aluminum/aluminium wasn't easily separable from bauxite until electricity could be generated at industrial scale. It also forms a protective oxidized patina very quickly so needs very little in the way of post processing to "clean it up" for re-use.
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