Plastic ball widget in nitrogenated beer cans question

Hi guys, I am trying to figure out how to advise my readers (I write a sustainability blog) to deal with recycling nitrogenated beer cans, i.e. stuff like Guinness that comes with a plastic nitro widget. I have seen some say it's not necessary to remove it since it will get eliminated during the shredding process, others that say not all aluminum recycling plants have this technology and if you don't cut open the can and remove the plastic, the cans with plastic in them night just get thrown out.

I wondered if anyone on here has any insight on this based on the requirements of the places you take your scrap, whether nitrogenated cans are an issue.

There are three angles to this. From a strictly recycling perspective there is no problem with the nitrogen inserts (plastic contamination) that is not already expected in recyclable aluminum cans. So at the point of can shredding for smelting it's just fine. Though this does not mean that the plastic itself will be recycled. At the point of shredding it'll likely be mixed with the plastic that you sometimes find as thin can sleeves. This will probably end up in a landfill or incinerator.

From the point of view of selling scrap metal the aluminum cans are so light that even that small bit of plastic is contaminating weight. So at the scrapyard if you have a significant amount of cans with nitrogen balls in them they might downgrade your aluminum to a lower category but they'll still buy it. Most likely if mixed in with other cans the yard won't notice or care.

And from the bottle deposit perspective there is no difference. The only point from sustainability is that the plastic from nitrogen inserts might end up landfilled. The cans will not if brought to the recycling stream via scrapyards or can/bottle returns.

Thank you, this was very helpful!