A record 100 million tons of aluminum are now produced every year the making of which uses an astonishing one trillion kilowatt hours. Your average American home, for comparison, draws a little over 10,000 kw/h each year. Maybe only a piece of useless trivia, and this might be a bit of an oversimplification, but to put it into context one can therefore say that your home’s entire electric bill could make just a single ton of this metal. That’s not much. A ton of aluminum would take up the volume of your fridge. No, not that fridge. A mini fridge the sort that is meant to keep your beer cold while you watch a game.

Aluminum ores are common throughout the world therefore its production cost is largely tied up in the cost of electricity. Little wonder then that China, where environmental concerns take a backseat to economic growth and coal (the cheapest of industrial of fuels) is used indiscriminately to crank out those kilowatts, is the leading producer of the world’s aluminum.

You won’t be surprised to learn that this sliver of pure aluminum came from China - nor that it costs less than a buck. Or to learn the even more useless trivia bit that it took approximately one watt for a whole hour to make this little bar!