Originally Posted by
SlimRider
This statement is so inaccurate, is almost hilarious. The bayer process, is a much more expensive process. Extracting aluminum from bauxite is a more expensive process than the extraction of iron from its ore to make steel. Alternatively, recycling aluminum is cheaper and less complexed than recycling steel. Also, aluminum is much more readily available.
The Bayer process isn't the expensive, energy intensive part of aluminum production - the subsequent Hall-Heroult process, by which the alumina obtained from the Bayer process is electrolyzed in molten cryolite at over 1000 degrees Celsius is the expensive part.
As far as recycling goes, I see nothing inherent to steel that would make it more complex to recycle than aluminum. It's the same basic process - clean, melt down, re-cast - whether you're talking steel or aluminum. And if nothing else, the magnetic nature of steel would make it easier to separate from other materials, which would aid in the recycling process.