On March 1, a Sunday afternoon, a call that shocked the leaders at Novelis, yet again. The call informed of another fire breakout at the firm's facility in Greensboro, Georgia, dedicated to aluminium recycling.

According to the call made, Joe Bashore, the Greene County Fire Public Safety, Emergency Management/Homeland Security Director, told The Union-Recorder, "This explosion was pretty significant. I live 5 miles from here and heard it. It kind of rattled my house, as well."

The fire broke out after an explosion occurred in an equipment piece, which further led to the lighting up of the entire equipment. Nonetheless, it was positive that the fire did not cause injuries to the employees or the first responders. Due to this unprecedented incident, the operations of the aluminium recycling plant are now at a halt as the impacted areas are assessed for cleaning and revamping the facility again.

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Although the fire is considered one of the major events the area has ever seen in recent years, officials have already conducted air quality checks around the plant and the nearby businesses. Given the findings, no environmental hazards or risks to the public occurred due to the incident.

For the time being, the firm is predicting no high impact on customers by relying on its recycling and casting capacity at Berea, Guthrie and Logan facilities, which are located in Kentucky and Oswego, New York. Besides this, the firm informs that they also have access to the third-party casting centres. This facility is a global leader in aluminium rolling and recycling and it counts Coca-Cola among its major clients, providing aluminium for beverage cans.

The Greensboro facility was the first stand-alone recycling plant for used beverage cans (UBC) that the firm had established, according to the company’s website. Since then, this site has been crucial in developing and enhancing various recycling technologies for the company.

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Back in late 2025, two major fires broke out at the firm's facilities, which raised some serious concerns about potential disruptions to their operations. The first fire broke out in September 2025, at the Scriba facility in Oswego County, causing damage to the roof and hot mill and leading to a temporary shutdown of the plant.

Another fire broke out during November 2025 at the firm's Oswego plant, triggering a four-alarm emergency response. Irrespective of controlling the fire on time, it has reignited worries, especially since the facility was still in the process of recovering from the earlier incident that had already impacted supply chains for major automakers.

On March 5, the firm informed that it had resumed operations in the aluminium recycling facility in Greenboro, Georgia. Since the fire that broke out in the plant, it damaged a baghouse and the cold-end equipment, incurring no injuries and employees are working towards cleaning the area; the operations are back on track again. The plant restarted its casting operations on March 4. 

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