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...
Europe’s aluminium scrap exports to the US have risen by 243 per cent, highlighting a growing concern over the continent’s access to strategic raw materials as it pursues recycling, decarbonisation and industrial competitiveness. Evangelos Mytilineos, Executive Chairman of METLEN, raised the issue, linking scrap outflows to the broader challenges facing European industry, energy security and strategic autonomy. Aluminium scrap outflows raise industrial concerns Mytilineos referred to the contrasting US tariff treatment of aluminium products, i.e., a 50 per cent tariff on primary aluminium, compared with zero tariff on scrap . With European aluminium scrap exports to the US increasing by 243 per cent, he questioned whether Europe could strengthen its industrial base while allowing valuable...
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The recycled aluminium sector has experienced vast evolutions this week, with German car brand Audi creating a 'MaterialLoop' in collaboration with 15 associates from the supply, recycling and research depots to impose a closed raw material (e.g. aluminium) circulating loop along the automobile industry. On a jovial note, Rio Carnival 2023 has broken the Guinness World Record for arranging the world’s largest aluminium recycling programme. In the past weeks, many other major organisations with their footfall across the globe have accommodated a commendable transformation to embrace Net Zero. Industrywide, there is an urge to adopt various methods of recycling scrap material. At the same time, we see a definite rise in the non-profit, social side of aluminium awareness because of its 100%...
Source Global, the innovative company that generates atmospheric drinking water, has acquired the spring water brand Proud Source Water. Proud Source, a certified B Corp, sells naturally alkaline water in recyclable aluminium bottles at retailers and food service locations across the United States. Together, the businesses will offer "the first entirely renewable, sustainable bottled water," as per Source Global. The Source Hydropanel, its technology, uses just sunlight and air as inputs to produce drinking water. Cody Friesen, the Founder and CEO, said, “Our Hydropanels allow us to establish a source of clean, sustainable water almost anywhere on the planet, without the need to extract from existing freshwater resources”. “The technology is powered entirely by the sun, and the water is...
SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited Company has filed for patent approval at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This SMX application can inevitably provide transparency and algorithm for some of the biggest industrial consumers of aluminium alloy materials and items. SMX technology allows material hoarders in the industry to follow a blockchain platform for lifecycle assessment of the materials enhanced through molecular-level marking (U.S. application no. 63/450,826). The article below tracks SMX’s formulation of a portal for semi-industrialised aluminium alloys: A flagship Marking System can be incorporated at the melting point for full lifecycle authentication of the source, specific boundaries and grade proportion. The SMX Marking System permits post-production...
The Aluminum Packaging Recycling Organization (Alupro) held a nationwide competition, launched as a part of Alupro's Bin-Fluencers educational campaign, designed to assist students in learning more about recycling. It challenged students from all around the UK to create an eye-catching recycling bin design. Alupro declared a student from the Castell Alun High School in Wrexham as the winner. The judges praised Isabella Adams' contribution as being "very innovative and entertaining," She was awarded the gold prize, along with an iPad and her artwork printed on a brand-new recycling bin donated to her school. "As the voice of the UK aluminium packaging industry, we're committed to increasing national recycling rates. Educating the next generation about best practice recycling and...
The Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) has joined hands with different local organisations to help recycle more aluminium beverage cans at the Recycle Dat event organised by Mardi Gras 2023. Thousands of aluminium beverage cans were sold for money that CMI matched and donated to charities or locals instead of ending up in landfills. Notably, the aluminium from those beverage cans is now used for making new cans. Their collaborators included the City of New Orleans, the regional tourist organisation New Orleans & Company, EMR, many regional brewers, and the local, sustainable events non-profit Grounds Krewe. The goal of CMI includes increasing the recycling rate from 45 per cent in 2020, which made beverage containers the most recycled in the US, to 70 per cent by 2030, 80 per cent by 2040,...
Rio de Janeiro’s samba school parade has made history with its record-breaking accomplishment in recycling aluminium beverage cans. The Guinness Book of World Records enlisted this as the World’s biggest aluminium beverage can recycling programme. During the Carnival that extended from 17th to 20th February and on the 25th of the month, about 10 tonnes of aluminium beverage cans were accumulated. The Rio Carnival can be anointed as the largest and one of the most special celebratory festivities in the World. The event can be treated as an epitome of sustainability drives internationally. Major non-profit organisations heavily participated in the Carnival, like Abralatas, the Brazilian Association of Aluminum Can Manufacturers, Every Can Count’s Brazilian division, and Cada Lata Conta....
JinkoSolar has discovered a methodology through which it can recycle almost 92 per cent of the materials already in use in a readymade solar panel taken from the market. Since solar panels contain a considerable ratio of glass, aluminium and copper, this can be marked as a remarkable advancement. The prevailing method for recycling solar panels begins with mixing all materials, making it extremely difficult to sort individual items. Here, the company has come up with an advanced method of segregating the glass, aluminium and silicon wafer through thermal and mechanical techniques. JinkoSolar can also point out different melting points of encapsulation material, such as thermoset EVA/POE, when the module is heated. After the decomposition process of the encapsulation material is...
German luxury automobile giant Audi has constituted a 'MaterialLoop' in collaboration with 15 associates from the supply, recycling and research sectors. This project will allow Audi to introduce a closed raw material circulating loop along the automobile industry. Audi is ready to collect the post-consumer materials from its cars after they are scrapped to construct new flagship vehicles. After eulogising Audi's protocol for a circular economy, the project went on to identify specific incantations on how a circular economy can be activated and run smoothly. To this date, a minimal amount of interest has been spent on upcycling the materials used in old, end-of-life cars. Therefore, the metal extracted from these vehicles, such as steel, ends up as a structural material for construction...
Glencore, one of the world's largest globally diversified natural resource companies, has reportedly entered into a partnership with scrap brokerage Zeb Metals to advance its aluminium scrap and dross recycling operation at a new plant in South Carolina, USA. The plant is scheduled to commence production by the end of 2023, with two rotary furnaces to recycle aluminium dross and industrial scrap for regional consumption. Glencore has a long experience in copper scrap and precious metal scrap recycling at facilities in the United States, Canada, Italy and Chile. Now it will debut in aluminium scrap recycling when the industry is seeing the highest investments in decades. "Recent government policies, such as the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the EU's proposed Green Deal Industrial...
According to the US Geological Survey, India imported 102,900 tonnes of aluminium scrap from the United States during the fourth quarter of 2022, which reflected a sequential downfall of 20.11 per cent from 128,800 million tonnes in Q3 2022. In total, India imported 231,700 million tonnes of aluminium scrap from the US during the second half of 2022, up by 2.07 per cent from 227,000 million tonnes in H1 2022. In December 2022, India sourced 33,300 tonnes of aluminium scrap from the United States, compared to 28,800 tonnes in November. That represented a month-on-month growth of 15.63 per cent, found USGS. But on a year-on-year calculation, the import volume stood 21.28 per cent less than 42,300 tonnes. In the full-year 2022, India’s aluminium scrap imports from the US totalled 459,000...
The Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), in its first major recycling campaign for 2023, collected 7,357 kg of aluminium cans. This year, the campaign “Can Collection Day” was held on Sunday, February 26, under the theme “Say: Yes to Can Recycling, No to Carbon Emissions”. Mrs Habiba Al Mar’ashi, Chairperson of Emirates Environmental Group, explained the theme was chosen to establish that even simple sustainability actions like segregation and recycling could dramatically reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere. According to her, the best way to save the planet is to organise action-oriented, inclusive programmes that engage the communities at large. Since 1997 (when the Can Collection Campaign was first rolled out) until now, EEG has collected 386,366 kg of aluminium cans for recycling....
O'Donnell, a member of Scout Troop 35, found a way to help the residents of Sheffield continue with their recycling activity at the Elk Street shed, which was the sole option for collecting aluminium cans during COVID. However, with time, the old can shed started overflowing, as a result of which, residents found it difficult to recycle their aluminium cans. The Scout Troop 35 empties the bins and transports them to the recycling centre. "That's what prompted me to start the project. The old can shed would be overflowing in less than two weeks once COVID had people staying indoors so much more. It was overflowing constantly. Bags of cans were piled on top. Sheffield needed a more efficient recycling system for aluminum cans," said O'Donnell, a senior at Sheffield Area High School and a...
Jarad Giddens, a city council member, gave the American Legion Post the first check for the city's $680 recent revenue from recycling aluminium cans. The American Legion Post uses its money from recycling aluminium cans to cover operating costs and provide emergency assistance to the community's veterans and their families. The Nixa Price Cutter parking lot contains a recycling bin specifically for Post 434's aluminium cans, formerly the post's primary source of income. "We were blown away by the generosity of the city to donate this money to the post in an ongoing manner. A few years ago, we had to take donations from our members just to keep the doors open and pay our bills, but now we don't have to worry about being able to pay the bills because the city is providing this. It's truly...
The BMW Group is once again setting the standard for the circular economy. The new MINI Cooper SE Convertible, with a combined power consumption of 17.2kWh/100 km according to the 'Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure' (WLTP) and carbon emissions of 0 g/km, will be the foremost series model to be produced with alloy wheels 100 per cent from recycled aluminium. The Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) is a chassis dynamometer test cycle for determining emissions and fuel consumption from light-duty vehicles. Dr Nicolai Martin, Senior Vice President of Development Automated Driving, said, “As a premium manufacturer, we entrenched sustainability in the development from very early on. The light alloy wheels of the fully electric open-top four-seater are a...
Incepted in 1997, the Can Collection Campaign was the 1st environmental community action programme launched by EEG to support the Leadership’s vision of becoming a more sustainable economy. Since inception until the end of 2022, EEG has collected 378,083 kg of used Aluminium cans, which led to the mitigation of 5,675 MT CO2e, saved 86,046 Million BTU of energy and 9,178 m3 of landfill space. As reflected by the collections, a positive direction has transpired in our society. In 2022, we witnessed tremendous participation wherein we collected a total of 25,474 kg of Aluminium cans from 4,138 participating entities, exceeding the target of 20,000 kg. Hoping to break records again, we call on all our participants to actively participate in our upcoming ‘Can Collection Day’ scheduled to be...
Transgrid has introduced cutting-edge new equipment, a first for Australia, to speed up the recycling of obsolete transmission lines, reducing emissions and saving millions of dollars. Transgrid has teamed up with the German manufacturing company ZECK to recycle conductors in western Sydney. The outer layer of aluminium is removed from conductors when fed into the ZECK Al/Steel Separator (ZAS) machine under tension. It is then sliced into 30-70mm pieces gathered in considerable bags in preparation for smelting into new goods. At the other end, the undamaged steel core is coiled onto a cable drum and prepared for recycling. Newcastle-based Field Coordinator Mitch Coppock proposed the usage of the technology to Transgrid. Transgrid is the trusted and reliable operator of high-voltage energy...
Hindalco Industries Limited is reportedly mulling installing a recycling and segregation plant for its aluminium and copper businesses in Gujarat. The aim is to increase the proportion of recyclable products, in line with its US subsidiary. The project is estimated to cost INR 3,000 crore, per the preliminary estimates. The news came on February 22 after Hindalco's Managing Director Satish Pai told BQ Prime, "We are evaluating locations in Gujarat for the project. As per initial estimates, it will require an investment of Rs 3,000 crore." The project will feature a segregation unit and a smelter with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes. As India rapidly moves towards a green transition, aluminium demand is increasing. Hence, accelerating recycling rate and developing an alternative supply chain...
With a focus on the aluminium beverage can production chain, Ambev has planned various initiatives for the benefit of around 30 thousand partners, street sellers, and recyclable collectors targeted at the Carnival blocks. The initiative started together by the National Association of Collectors and Collectors of Recyclable Materials (ANCAT) project in collaboration with beverage maker Ambev, will combine enjoyment with employment as street parties are typically the most lucrative for these professionals. Waste pickers in Brazil are the real leaders in collecting recyclable solid trash, including aluminium, cardboard, glass, plastic, and other materials. Some 1,100 individual and cooperative collectors will participate in the "Bloco dos Catadores" in So Paulo and Recife, taking advantage...
