Europe’s recycled aluminium industry is an important component of the global secondary aluminium supply chain, with Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom (UK) representing key national markets. Production across the European region stood at nearly 6 million tonnes in 2023, supported by established scrap recovery systems, industrial recycling capacity and demand for recycled metal. Russia also contributes to the regional landscape through secondary aluminium production units concentrated in several industrial centres. According to AL Circle’s analysis in its report, “ World Recycled ALuminium Market Analysis Industry Forecast ”, the four countries present different market structures, from Germany’s substantial recycling capacity and Italy’s scrap-based production to the UK’s organised...
According to SMM survey statistics, the operating rate of the secondary aluminium alloy industry in September was 35.0 per cent, up 3.1 percentage points M-o-M but down 6.7 percentage points Y-o-Y. Industry production continued its recovery trend, but the overall operating level remained below the same period last year. On the demand side, September marked the traditional peak consumption season, with downstream orders recovering from August. End-use demand from automobiles and other sectors improved marginally, but the peak season effect has yet to fully materialise. According to CAAM data, automobile production in September was 2.99 million units, up 11.4 per cent M-o-M but down 8.7 per cent Y-o-Y. NEV production was 1.814 million units, up 12.2 per cent Y-o-Y. CAAM noted that China's...
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Novelis, the world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, today announced the first product in a new portfolio of certified high-recycled content aluminum for specialty applications called evercycle™. This new material will enable customers to produce infinitely-recyclable products with a lower carbon footprint. The first product in the evercycle portfolio is designed for aluminum food containers. This product is certified by SCS Global Services to contain 100 percent recycled aluminum, made up of 90 percent post-consumer content and 10 percent customer manufacturing scrap – the only material of its kind in the market. Commercially available now in North America, evercycle is expected to become available globally as demand grows. "The launch of evercycle marks an important next step in...
Hulamin, a South Africa based aluminium products manufacturer has recently announced its plans to build an aluminium recycling plant that would use beverage cans as raw materials and ready to invest ZAR 300 million (US$ 25.4 million) for the same. The Pietermaritzburg-based company has disclosed that a majority of the fund to establish the new plant will come from a five-year loan from Nedbank worth ZAR 270 million (US$ 22.3 million). Using the plant, they will be able to churn out aluminium through their gas-fired furnaces while consuming only a fraction of the electricity required to smelt new metal, the company explained. Hulamin claims that despite the fierce competition in the global market, there is a healthy demand for beneficiated aluminium products and the niche in which the...
The UK's recycling targets for steel and aluminium packaging have been based on incorrect data, says a new report from the country's Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and compliance expert Valpak. The study was meant to test the 2012 and 2013 put-on-market figures for the aluminium and steel sectors as published by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra). Those figures are said to give a slightly distorted view, with the volume of aluminium being underestimated while steel was overestimated. The 'most robust' estimate that could be derived, based on publicly-available data, suggests that the quantity of steel packaging put on the market was 524 000 tonnes in 2012 and 529 000 tonnes in 2013. 'In 2012, the level of steel reprocessed by accredited reprocessors...
The U.S. aluminum industry purchased1 an estimated 759 million pounds of aluminum scrap during December 2014, according to aluminum recycling statistics published by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Interior, up 7.7 percent over the December 2013 total of 705 million. USGS estimates that recovery of aluminum and aluminum alloys totaled 646 million pounds, an increase of 8.4 percent year-over-year. Preliminary data for 2014 indicate that recovery of aluminum from scrap totaled an estimated 8,018 million pounds, up 4.4 percent over the 2013 total of 7,677 million. U.S. exports of scrap, not included in the government’s consumption statistics, totaled 3,833 million pounds in 2014, down 6.3 percent from 2013. For more information visit the Aluminum Association website.
United Nations Environment Programme states that the average amount of e-waste generated globally amounts to almost 50 million tons and is expected to grow by a whopping 500 percent over the next decade. Surprisingly, only 15-20 percent of the waste is recycled and as a result a lot of it goes to landfills or incinerators causing pollution and at the same time a lot of valuable metal is wasted. The discarded e-waste not only causes pollution due to the presence of lead, mercury and cadmium which releases toxic fumes into the environment when burned or disposed improperly. A lot of valuable metal is also wasted leading to needless mining of new metals when the same could be derived from the waste. Dr Damien Giurco, a researcher in UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures says, “We’ve found...
Pakistan’s engineering firms have urged the federal tax authority to repeal of the five percent regulatory duty paid on the import of aluminium waste and scrap as it is adversely affecting the local industrial production. In a letter to the Chairman Federal Board of Revenue, Tariq Bajwa, the producers of non-ferrous metal alloys argue that since there are no duties on the import of finished goods, there should not be any for the scrap raw materials either for a fair system. Production is being greatly hampered by the duty leading to several closures of industrial units, unemployment and deterioration of the overall economy, the producers informed the FBR chief. Additional duty was imposed last month in light of the steady fall of metal scrap price in the international markets. The finance...
Enval set to start trial runs for the pioneering technology for recycling flexible aluminium laminate packaging to assess the feasibility of the process. Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will be funding the trial that will cover 260 households for nine months starting 16 February across various locations in the country. Collection will be conducted by SUEZ environment along with the initial sorting while Enval will carry out the recycling task in their commercial demonstration facility at the Alconbury Enterprise Zone, near Huntingdon. Dr Carlos Ludlow-Palafox, Managing Director, Enval, said: "These trials are providing an important opportunity to prove that we can successfully capture and recycle the valuable aluminium, as well as recover the plastics as a fuel...
The recycling targets for steel and aluminium packaging have been based on flawed data according to a report commissioned by Wrap. The report, in conjunction with Valpak, aimed to reassess the accuracy of the 2012 and 2013 aluminium and steel packaging quantity figures placed on the market (POM). It found that the original Defra figures were incorrect, with the quantity of aluminium POM being underestimated while steel was overestimated and concluded that new ranges for recycling rates should be calculated based on these figures with higher than existing ones for steel and lower for aluminium packaging. The project opted to use the net pack fill methodology as an alternative to Defra’s packflow method. The packflow figures were originally estimated through a data gathering exercise and...
The overall recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans in the EU 27 + EFTA countries increased by 1.5 percent points to a new record level of 69.5 percent (70 percent) in 2012. When considering the collection of cans in the remaining European countries and Turkey, the result is that the metal of more than 27.5 billion cans remains in the European circular economy and is available again for the production of new aluminium products. The collected cans represent a total amount of 390,000 tons of recycled aluminium, preventing more than 3.12 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. The European Aluminium Association (EAA) considers this 70 percent result an important milestone in its path towards its voluntary recycling targets for used beverage cans set for the reporting years 2015 (75...
The overall recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans in the EU 27 + EFTA countries increased by 1.5% points to a new record level of 69.5% (70%) in 2012. When considering the collection of cans in the remaining European countries and Turkey, the result is that the metal of more than 27.5 billion cans remains in the European circular economy and is available again for the production of new aluminium products. Moreover, these collected cans represent a total amount of 390,000 tons of recycled aluminium, avoiding more than 3.12 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), i.e. the average yearly emission of about 340.000 EU citizens, equivalent to the entire population of cities like Florence, Cardiff or Alicante. Each tonne of recycled aluminium saves up to 95% of the energy used or...
Researchers at Australia's Deakin University have developed a technology 'that should open the way to recycling the bulk of the 200 000 aircraft currently traversing the airways'. The university calculates this breakthrough would see around 6 million tonnes and billions of dollars’ worth of high-performance aluminium alloys retained within the airline industry. Dr Thomas Dorin and his co-workers have built a prototype of the recycling process at Deakin's Institute for Frontier Materials at Waurn Ponds. Said to deliver 'an enhancement of the alloys' performances', Dorin says of the process: 'We adapted the steel Direct Strip Casting technology, which uses a vertical twin copper roll system to process the alloys.' The key was using copper instead of steel roller to achieve extremely high...
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) today announced that the ordering period opens on Monday, March 16, for the Superfund Recycling Equity Act (SREA) Reasonable Care Compliance Program Reports. Beginning March 16 and running through April 30, ISRI members have an exclusive opportunity to sign up for due diligence reports on the scrap consuming facilities to which they ship recyclable materials. The reports help ISRI members demonstrate the due diligence required by law in order to be exempt from SREA. “The SREA Reasonable Care Compliance Program Reports help save ISRI members both time and money,” said Robin Wiener, president of ISRI. “Members are spared from having to dig through public records before determining whether or not to ship to a customer. I strongly encourage...
The aviation industry is constantly evolving so that it can design lighter aircraft, reduce consumption and emissions and put in place more efficient recycling systems that allow the valuable materials used to build aircraft to be reused. This is the research context in which the European SENTRY project is positioned; it is an initiative being led by the Basque IK4 R&D Alliance, and is part of the ambitious Clean Sky programme a public-private partnership between the European Commission (EC) and the Aeronautical Industry, set up to bring significant step changes regarding the environmental impact of aviation. The project sets out to conduct the differentiated recycling of alloys used to manufacture aircraft test panels built into a fuselage so that the materials used do not get diverted...
The U.S. aluminum industry purchased an estimated 759 million pounds of aluminum scrap during December 2014, according to aluminum recycling statistics published by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Interior, up 7.7 percent over the December 2013 total of 705 million. USGS estimates that recovery of aluminum and aluminum alloys totaled 647 million pounds, an increase of 8.5 percent year-over-year. Preliminary data for 2014 indicate that recovery of aluminum from scrap totaled an estimated 8,019 million pounds, up 4.5 percent over the 2013 total of 7,677 million. U.S. exports of scrap, not included in the government’s consumption statistics, totaled 3,832 million pounds in 2014, down 6.3 percent from 2013.
The seaport city of Vancouver in Canada is the chosen city for the ISRI Convention and Expo 2015, by the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). A variety of topics will be covered under the convention offering informative general sessions and workshops on topics like: ferrous, electronics, aluminium, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, stainless steel, plastics and recovered paper. The convention will also cover discussions on the economy. Stan Slap, entrepreneur, strategist and motivator opened the general session with his keynote speech titled ‘Tough Times, Tougher Teams’. The session will talk about the common excuses given for poor performances and how altering mentalities towards creating solution can create strong foundations in a company. US defense secretary Robert Gates, a...
Australians demonstrated some clever innovations at the Australian International Airshow conducted last week which included a new way of recycling aluminium. Australia’s boffins demonstrated this country could still lead the way when it comes to aviation research. Deakin University metallurgist Thomas Dorin and his team have developed a technology that they believe will allow the millions of tonnes of aluminium alloys used in aircraft to be re-used in the industry, with potential savings in the billions. While recycling of aluminium cans is common, the cost-effective recycling of the aluminium alloys used in aircraft is difficult due to alloying elements and the need for low levels of impurities. Dr Dorin said the team had a proof of concept that showed its technology, developed at...
The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders announce the 2015 schedule of its free scrap metal recycling events. A wide variety of metal goods, from household appliances to gutters and sheds, are included in the program. "This countywide program helps to fill a service gap in some Union County municipalities that currently have no pickup for scrap metal recycling," said Freeholder Chairman Mohamed Jalloh. "As a community, we benefit across the board by recycling more and throwing away less waste - and we also stand to gain some revenue from the program." The scrap metal recycling program is available for use by households, commercial establishments, nonprofit agencies and other organizations. Starting on Thursday, March 5, and running through November, the program will be available on...
The following article is based on the latest Non-Ferrous Metals World Mirror produced by the BIR world recycling organisation for the benefit of its members. US secondary aluminium prices have slid a further US$ 20-40 per ton as secondaries appear to be holding sufficient scrap and ‘are waiting to sell the finished ingot inventory for the next quarter’. Prices of UBCs and other alloys have mirrored a slight drop in the Midwest premium. Despite prices having fallen ‘dramatically’ in January, the aluminium scrap volumes generated and collected in Japan ‘have not been large enough’. Aluminium alloy prices are dropping more sharply than Zorba - the main raw material for ADC12 production. Conversely, there has been an improved supply and reasonable volumes of aluminium scrap traded in the...
