RecAL targets Europe’s aluminium recycling bottleneck as industry pushes for higher-value recovery

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Europe’s aluminium recycling industry has long celebrated one major advantage - recycled aluminium uses only 5 per cent of the energy required to produce primary metal. Yet behind that success lies a persistent challenge that continues to limit the sector’s full potential: alloy contamination.

Now, a new European research initiative believes it may have found a way forward.

Led by the Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna, the EU-funded RecAL project is attempting to reshape how aluminium scrap is sorted, traced and reused across the continent. Backed by the Horizon Europe programme, the initiative brings together 19 partners from nine European countries with a shared objective — making aluminium recycling smarter, cleaner and far more efficient.

The push to stop aluminium downcycling

One of the biggest obstacles in aluminium recycling is the mixing of alloys at end-of-life stages. Scrap material often contains multiple metallic elements that are difficult to separate during processing.

As a result, valuable aluminium frequently ends up being “downcycled” into lower-value products instead of returning to high-performance applications.

The RecAL consortium wants to change this pattern through a combination of advanced recycling technologies and digital monitoring systems. Central to the project is the planned “RecAL Hub” - a digital cockpit designed to improve traceability, sorting and reuse of aluminium recyclates throughout Europe.

The project is also developing 14 technological solutions aimed at improving the entire recycling chain, from scrap sorting and remelting to alloy development and digital process control. These technologies are being developed up to technology readiness level 6.

Europe is expected to source nearly half of its aluminium production from recycled material by 2050. However, industry analysts continue to argue that stronger coordination and better digital infrastructure will be necessary if recovery rates are to improve further.

Delve deeper into the recycled aluminium and secondary aluminium market with our World Recycled ALuminium Market Analysis Industry forecast to 2032 

Recycling momentum continues to build across industries

The RecAL project arrives at a time when aluminium recycling rates are already moving higher across several sectors.

New data from Metal Packaging Europe and European Aluminium showed that aluminium beverage can recycling reached 76.3 per cent across the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland in 2023. Recycling volumes also rose 7 per cent year-on-year.

The automotive industry has also emerged as one of the strongest recycling performers. In both Europe and the United States, more than 90-95 per cent of automotive aluminium is reportedly recovered and reused.

As demand for lightweight materials continues to grow across transport, construction and packaging industries, projects like RecAL are increasingly being viewed as critical to strengthening Europe’s future secondary raw material supply chain.

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