1 Laws and rules that protect people who shop and spend are examples of consumerism. 2  An obsession with shopping and acquiring stuff is an example of consumerism.  the practice and policies of protecting the consumer by publicizing defective and unsafe products, misleading business practices, etc.
Lower grades of aluminum or dirty aluminum (aluminum mixed with other materials or having insulation) will command a lower value then clean heavy aluminum scrap. for example - see some example aluminum scrap prices below for mid June 2011, the price per pound. Old Sheet Aluminum $ 0.63. Extruded Aluminum $ 0.90.
Because so many of them are recycled, aluminum cans account for less than 1% of the total U.S. waste stream, according to EPA estimates. An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now! There is no limit to the amount of times an aluminum can be recycled. We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year. At one time, aluminum was more valuable than gold! A 60-watt light bulb can be run for over a day on the amount of energy saved by recycling 1 pound of steel. In one year in the United States, the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18,000,000 homes!