led the country in the value of its primary aluminum shipments, which totaled more than $2.5 billion in 2001. And the automotive industry, which produced a $10.6 billion gross state product in 2002, stands as one of the largest and fastest growing markets for the metal. Aluminum usage has doubled in cars and tripled in SUVs over the last decade, currently surpassing plastic in percentage of vehicle content.

But maintaining and expanding the state's lucrative presence in aluminum may rely on the raw product that consumers are willing to fish out of their trashcans, Das said. Currently, Secat is conducting a study to increase the amount of aluminum recycled in Lexington and eventually across the United States, with the ultimate goal being a sustainable system of information that could also be implemented for other materials as well.

"Kentucky has a good advanced; aluminum industry , but it is no longer a regional business," Das explains. "In this flat world where we are importing all of our raw materials, the only way to really enhance our competitive advantage is to recycle and develop new products and make our processes more efficient and cost competitive. If we can recycle, have new products and make them cost competitive, then we can sustain the businesses staying here."

Secat is talking to all of the companies in Lexington that make aluminum cans to find out how many pounds of aluminum cans are sold in Fayette county on a monthly basis. "We are doing the study in Fayette County and Lexington to enhance the aluminum can recycling rate, and by doing that we can create economic incentives for companies to come here, because you can provide them lower cost on materials and keep environmental stewardship of the nation," Das said. "We are also talking to all of the recyclers in Fayette County and collecting data as to how many cans have been recycled.

We want to have the baseline data and track it down and then try some selective intervention to enhance it and measure it. Once we understand it, we can hopefully enhance it and make it sustainable."

Secat's recycling study stems from the fact that one of the most critical sectors left in the United States is aluminum fabrication. "In the '80s and '90s we stopped being a nation of producers but stayed as a nation of consumers, and the raw materials became fully critical," Das said. "Since the United States is the biggest consumer of any product and if everything is coming here to the United States, then as long as we can keep the product here and recycle it, then we have the world's most efficient raw materials."

Using aluminum as an example, Das said, "An aluminum beverage can is the purest form of aluminum there is, because somebody has refined the bauxite in Brazil, someone has refined the bauxite alumina in Jamaica, somebody has made aluminum from refining in Iceland and that refined aluminum has come to America. As long as we can recycle it, aluminum is the cheapest, most efficient raw metal we have. The difference between the cost of recycled cans and new aluminum is 40 cents a pound. If we can gain a 40 cents advantage per pound and the world keeps shipping all the materials to us, then we have a model that can sustain, and that's what we're doing."

But unless Secat understands the reasons, demographics and social factors affecting recycling, it's hard to campaign for it. Before Secat develops the strategies to enhance the aluminum recyclng rate, it is going to have to find out why consumers are doing what they're doing. "If we can convey the message to our young people, who are not as good at recycling, and if we can convey to constituents that it’s much easier to keep and maintain and grow an existing job than to bring a new business to the community, then I think that's much more sustainable, "Das said.