Focus on Steel

Metal is an easy to recycle material and quite valuable. Just remember to clean all cans out properly and to remove any plastic.

We rely on steel cans for packaging our food in durable, tamper-resistant, shelf-stable containers. We reach for them on cold winter evenings when we need a cup of soup. We empty their contents into dog and cat food dishes for our pets. We even polish our furniture and paint our homes with their contents.
You may not realize it, but you probably use at least one steel can every day. The familiar "tin" can has been part of our society for more than a century. Steel cans package a variety of products, including fruits, vegetables, soups, sauces, meats, condiments, juice, pet food, cleaning products, paint, shoe polish, adhesive bandages, coffee and even cookies. Steel cans are also something else -- recyclable.
And they have the potential to be recycled over and over again into new steel products.

Source: http://www.recycle-steel.org/cans.html

Steel is probably the easiest material to separate from the rest of the solid waste stream. Steel is attracted to magnets, so special magnetic belts can be used to separate steel cans from other recyclables. This is a much more efficient method than the labor-intensive hand-sorting necessary with other recyclables, such as plastics.
Recycling your used steel cans at home is easy, too. All you need to do is rinse the food from the cans. That’s it. Years ago, scrap dealers asked people to remove the paper labels and the tops and bottoms from cans. This is no longer necessary.
If you’re not sure which cans are steel and which are aluminum, use a magnet to separate them. Steel will stick to the magnet; aluminum will not. If you come across a can with a steel body and an aluminum top—called a bimetal can—put the can with the steel recyclables. Steel recyclers can accept all types of steel cans, even those containing aluminum. Aluminum recyclers can only accept 100 percent aluminum cans.
After steel scrap is collected from homes, recycling centers, or waste-to-energy plants, it is shipped to one of the companies that buy old steel—steel mills, iron and steel foundries, scrap dealers, and detinners. Detinners remove the layer of tin from old steel cans. This tin is valuable and can be sold.
Steel can recycling follows almost the same process as aluminum can recycling. Steel cans, along with other steel scrap, are melted in a furnace and then poured into casters that continuously roll and flatten the steel into sheets. Recycled steel cans can be made into new cars, girders for buildings, or new food cans.
Like aluminum, steel can also be recycled again and again. It does not lose any of its strength or quality in the recycling process. It can be a never-ending process that continues to save energy and resources. Source: http://www.eia.doe.gov/