The Fastest Way to Secure Aluminum at Home

Federal trade policy has jolted the aluminum market, doubling tariffs on imported metal and pushing manufacturers to source more material domestically. That shock has a silver lining in that it highlights the cheapest, cleanest, and fastest path to real “made-in-America” supply, recycling our own cans.

The United States uses roughly half imported aluminum while operating only a handful of energy-hungry smelters. By contrast, secondary aluminum (from scrap) delivers the same metal with about 5% of the energy of primary smelting. Unsurprisingly, the market is pivoting hard toward scrap: inventories are up, robotic sorters are scaling, and companies across autos, defense, and packaging are chasing low-carbon feedstock. Yet we’re still leaving value on the table. America recycles only about 43% of used beverage cans, burying nearly 800,000 metric tons a year—roughly the output of two modern smelters. Worse, we exported more than 2 million metric tons of aluminum scrap last year, shipping away critical feedstock just as domestic demand tightens.

For Texas, this is not merely an environmental miss; it’s an economic unforced error. The Gulf Coast hosts mills and manufacturers ready to turn today’s litter into tomorrow’s paychecks, but they can’t operate on wishful thinking. They need reliable, high-quality, in-state scrap—consistently. That’s exactly what a market-driven deposit-refund system delivers.

How a deposit-refund system closes Texas’s “UBC gap.”

Deposit-refund programs put a small, refundable value on every beverage container. Consumers get their money back at redemption, and industry-run operators aggregate clean, sorted cans at scale. The result is a stable, high-purity stream of metal that mills crave, at a fraction of the energy and cost of primary aluminum. Where these programs operate, recycling rates soar above 80%, litter plummets, and local processors secure predictable supply. In pure supply-chain terms, it’s the lowest-cost hedge against tariff turbulence.

Why tariffs alone aren’t enough.

Tariffs can nudge production back home, but they don’t magically create feedstock. Without robust domestic collection, higher border taxes risk higher shelf prices—and continued dependence on volatile imports. A Texas deposit-refund system complements federal trade policy by unlocking in-state material, lowering energy intensity, and insulating our manufacturers from global swings. It’s the supply-side reform that turns a policy shock into a competitive advantage.

The business case for Texas.

• Cost & reliability: Recycled aluminum’s 95% energy savings translate into lower operating costs and a stronger buffer against power-market constraints. In an era when data centers bid up firm power, secondary metal keeps Texas manufacturing in the game.

• Speed to impact: New smelters take years and billions. A deposit-refund network can ramp collections statewide within months, feeding existing mills and stimulating new recycling investments.

• Keep value in-state: Every can redeemed in Texas is a can melted in Texas—supporting local jobs and Gulf Coast capacity instead of fueling competitors overseas.

• No fiscal note, industry-run: A Texas program can be designed as a private, industry-led system that sets efficient logistics, ensures transparency, and spares taxpayers.

Environmental dividends Texans can see.

Cleaner rivers and bays. Fewer roadside cans and storm-drain clogs. Lower lifecycle emissions from packaging and vehicles. Deposit-refund systems are one of the rare policies that reduce litter, strengthen domestic supply chains, and cut energy use—all at once.

Bottom line

Federal trade policy has reset the aluminum chessboard. Texas can either play defense—absorbing higher costs while exporting scrap—or play offense by pairing that national push with a state deposit-refund system that captures the cans we’re throwing away. The fastest, most fiscally conservative route to aluminum independence is sitting in our grocery carts and coolers right now.

Let’s put a dime on it, get it back at redemption, and keep the metal—and the jobs—here at home.