There have been some pretty impressive comebacks over the years. Flip phones, fanny packs and vinyl records leap to mind. One comeback that repeats all the time and should surprise no one is recycled aluminum products. Aluminum, like dad jokes, can endlessly recirculate. And the best part — it won’t lose any amount of its strength or durability no matter how many times you melt it down and recast it.

LumiCups use an alloy with 90% recycled aluminum content, but we don’t often give enough attention to the origin of that recycled component — and all that it signifies. The incredible thing isn’t just that LumiCups have so much recycled content in them and then transform themselves into recycled content for other products. It’s the fact that aluminum products are able to transform into almost any other form of aluminum product in each of its lifecycles. Equally impressive is how economically sustainable this material has been for so long.

Although most consumers won’t give a second thought to the role aluminum plays in the products they use, it’s worth looking at the spectrum of recycled aluminum products we use in our day-to-day routines. These examples have likely been dozens or hundreds of other products before reaching our hands in their present form:

Aluminum Cans for things that aren’t drinks

We all know about canned drinks, but how about all the cans lined up in your cabinets with hair care products like mousse or hairspray, body care products like spray-on sunscreens, shaving cream cans or moisturizers in pump containers. Out in your garage there are all those spray paint cans lined up. Each one of these products is partially made from other recycled aluminum products and will return as other things after you throw them into your recycling bin.

Airplanes

Aluminum is half the weight or twice the strength as steel, depending on how you use it. From the fuselage to the wing assemblies, landing gear doors to the overhead bins, airplanes rely on recycled aluminum products to supply parts for almost every major aspect of jet manufacturing. Fasten your seatbelts for safety but take a minute to notice that buckle is made from aluminum. Please wait till you’re airborne to lower your tray table – which usually has an aluminum frame, if not an aluminum surface as well. As airplanes are decommissioned, it’s quite typical for their aluminum parts to be stripped out and recycled.

Cars

In addition to its strength and lightness, aluminum doesn’t rust and can withstand great stress, which makes it ideal for the rigors that car parts must endure. Recycled aluminum can be used to make the frame of an automobile, forge components in transmissions, create unique and exotic looking wheels, create lamps and electrical wiring, and form magnets. From core engine parts to adornments on the exterior, recycled aluminum products are essential to building the modern car and making it safe and efficient for drivers. And since aluminum is one of the most valuable materials recovered from older vehicles, it helps make their salvage a profitable business.

Furniture

You’ve probably been staring at several pieces of furniture around your home for years without realizing you were looking at aluminum. Many people have metal tables and chairs made from aluminum, but it also can be found in desks, light fixtures and frequently it’s the favored material for patio furniture since it won’t rust. Those mini blinds you’ve been looking through all these years? They’re aluminum.

Sports Equipment

Aluminum’s tensile strength really shows its worth in the manufacture of sports equipment like baseball bats, golf clubs and all forms of racquets. The demand for light, high performance and incredibly durable materials in these products makes recycled aluminum a preferred metal for their fabrication. Another excellent use for recycled aluminum is in bicycles which need to be as light as possible and as strong as possible to withstand the full weight of the rider on rough and uneven surfaces. Bike frames, gears, cables and pedals are often made from recycled aluminum products and, when discarded, are themselves recycled again.

Cell Phones

It’s fair to say that most people begin their day by reaching for a handful of aluminum and end their day with it being one of the last things they touch. The typical smartphone has between 20-35 grams of aluminum in its frame and coverings. Sometimes aluminum oxide is mixed with the glass to help harden the surface against cracking. While it may seem a small amount, consider that the combined weight of all the other metals used in those phones – the copper, tin, nickel, silver, gold and the rare earth metals – adds up to about the same 20-35 grams on average. Importantly, manufacturers like Apple are using 100% recycled aluminum in their phones, so it’s pretty likely that some of our own old soda cans, tennis racquets or window blinds may have round-tripped into the phone we keep in our pocket.

Agriculture

While staring out into a large commercial farm your first thought may not be about aluminum, but you can be sure the metal is used in almost every aspect of farming. Heavy equipment like tractors and grain trailers use it in their engines, their frames and the hitches that connect all the equipment together. In the ground, aluminum is used for irrigation piping because of its durability and anti-corrosion qualities. Transportation tanks and storage silos rely on it, as do feed bins. And almost certainly, some of our discarded aluminum products have transformed over the years into the materials used to grow and cultivate our food.

National Defense

Most of us probably don’t look at an aluminum cup or can and make the immediate leap to military uses, but it’s integral to almost every aspect of operations for each of the armed services. It’s used in missile casings, satellite thermal shielding and drone components. In the water, we rely on it for amphibious vehicle hulls, and submarines need it for non-corrosive panels and electronics housings. And troopers wear it as their personal armor and are protected by it in their armored vehicles and personnel carriers. Recycled aluminum products make their way into every facet of our national defense, protecting the country with their endless adaptability and truly transformative uses.

It’s easy to overlook the tremendous contribution recycled aluminum products make to our consumer culture. This versatile metal is endlessly reusable, affordably recyclable and capable of taking almost any shape we need. This virtuous cycle strongly relies on consumers putting their cups, cans, household products and other materials into recycling bins, and ensuring we return aluminum to service each time we finish with it. From a beach picnic to a smartphone, from a baseball bat to a military drone, and hundreds of possibilities beyond that, recycled aluminum products are good for consumers and good for the environment.