Industrial uses for aluminium include buildings, airplanes, trains and cars, as well as items such as greenhouses, window frames and road signs.

But a large amount of the aluminium we use in the UK is for food and drink packaging, and all plain aluminium packaging is 100% recyclable:

• drinks cans;  some food cans, especially for fish products;  some aerosols (make sure they are empty, with plastic lids removed) and wine and spirit bottle caps
• foil used for takeaway and ready meal containers, premium pet food trays, dairy lidding, chocolate foil and kitchen foil.  
  

Foil is also often used as a very thin barrier layer in laminated packaging such as drinks cartons:  you can’t see it, but it helps keep the food or drink fresh, and is recycled with the dominant material (such as paper in the case of a drinks carton) where appropriate.

But it is important to note that items such as crisp packets are not made of aluminium foil (which is a thin sheet of metal) but of metallised plastic film, which is a plastic film coated with a sort of metallic ink.

Do the scrunch test  -  scrunch an item you’re not sure about in your hand and, if it springs back, it’s not aluminium.