Alupro welcomes Scanmetals, a specialist metal recycling company

On Monday, April 11, Alupro, the aluminium packaging and recycling organisation welcomed Scanmetals as its new member. Based in the United Kingdon, with operations in Scandinavia Scanmetals is a metal recycling company specializing in recovering non-ferrous metals from incinerator bottom ash created by Energy-from-Waste (EfW) plants.

“We’re delighted to announce Scanmetals as the first IBA recovery specialist to join Alupro. It demonstrates the company’s commitment to engaging with new audiences, as well as communicating the important role of IBA in the circular economy of tomorrow to consumers. We look forward to exploring the ways in which we can work together and make a real difference to the aluminium packaging recycling industry,” said Tom Giddings, Executive Director of Alupro.

The Scanmetals method involves sorting residual incinerator bottom ash (IBA) using the latest mechanical and sensor-based technologies to remove dust and aggregate after residual garbage has been collected to create power and heat. Smelters, refineries, ingot producers, and foundries all around the world buy and sell individual fractions of precious metals.

The Scanmetals technique is fully dry, unlike more typical IBA sortation options, and it uses the newest breakthroughs in eddy-current, induction, and X-ray sorting applications. This reduces the amount of water and chemicals used while also reducing oxidation of the metals recovered, resulting in much higher output quality.

“With more than 11 million tonnes of residual household and municipal waste treated in EfW facilities in the UK alone every year,* we believe that capturing metals released during energy recovery is an important circular process. By sorting the IBA, we capture more than 39,000 tonnes of ferrous metal per annum, including 26,000 tonnes of aluminium – 85% of which originates from aluminium packaging,” said the Managing Director of Scanmetas, Andrew King.

“Thanks to our unique process, we play an instrumental role in diverting valuable resources away from landfill. What’s more, as metal recovered from IBA achieves significant energy savings when compared to primary production, we can help companies across the world to lower their carbon footprint and prioritise the use of recycled materials. Joining Alupro provides a unique platform to engage with our customers and suppliers, as well as consumers, to further promote the benefits of IBA recovery and its importance in UK recycling rates,” added King.