A boost to recycling

Recycling serves as the sheet anchor for the sustainability strategy of businesses today. Recycling reduces the need for virgin resources, cuts down carbon emissions and mitigates adverse environmental impacts. For instance, recycling of aluminium saves 95% of the energy needed to produce new metal and saves 97% of greenhouse gas emissions produced in the primary production process.

Sustainable manufacturing practices are central to the manufacturing ethos of Novelis Inc., the world leader in aluminium rolling and recycling. The company is a leader in closed-loop aluminium recycling and has created the first and the largest closed-loop recycling systems in the world. This allows it to take back as much of the customers’ aluminum scrap as possible, turning it back into the same product again.

With a view to provide further impetus to its recycling efforts, Novelis will invest approximately $415 million to build two recycling centres as part of its efforts to reduce carbon emissions and shape a sustainable world. The facilities will come up at Ulsan in South Korea and Guthrie in Kentucky, USA. Novelis, which already operates Asia's largest aluminium recycling centre in Yeongju, South Korea, as well as the world's largest aluminium recycling centre in Nachterstedt, Germany, is making this investment in additional recycling capacity to meet the growing global demand for sustainable aluminium products.

The Ulsan recycling centre will have an annual casting capacity of 100 kilotonnes (kt) of low-carbon sheet ingot while the Guthrie facility will have an annual casting capacity of 240 kt of sheet ingot. Once commissioned, the Ulsan centre will reduce the company's carbon emissions by more than 420,000 tons annually and Guthrie by another one million tons each year.

"Novelis aims to be the world's leading provider of low-carbon, sustainable aluminium solutions that advance our business, industry, and society toward the benefits of a circular economy," said Steve Fisher, President and CEO of Novelis Inc. "Through these investments, we will continue to increase the amount of recycled content in our products, reduce our CO2 emissions, and move closer to carbon neutrality."

Using recycled aluminium as input material requires only 5 percent of the energy used to make primary aluminium, thus avoiding 95 percent of the carbon emissions associated with production. Novelis’ new recycling centres will be equipped with industry-leading processes and capabilities, including advanced shredding and sorting technology as well as energy-efficient innovations, to support the company's sustainability goal of reducing energy intensity by 10 percent by 2026.

Headquartered in Atlanta, USA, Novelis is a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Limited, a flagship company of the Mumbai-based Aditya Birla Group. Novelis is also the world’s largest recycler of cans – recycling over 74 billion beverage cans every year – with new beverage cans being returned to shelves in around just 60 days. The company also holds the distinction of having created the world’s first, and largest, automotive closed-loop recycling (CLR) system.

The benefits of closed-loop manufacturing are many. CLR saves over 90 percent of the energy that would otherwise be consumed to create virgin raw material – a huge reduction in energy use and carbon emissions.

It’s no wonder, then, that Novelis’ aluminium is a much-in-demand metal used by top brands worldwide and present in more than 225 vehicle models on the road. The aluminium major actively partners the automotive industry to move towards a lower-carbon and increasingly circular business model through its CLR system. The system takes aluminium scrap generated via auto-makers’ manufacturing steps, reforms it into the same grade of metal, and inserts it back into the supply chain for its customers.

Closing the loop also preserves the value of the alloy, reduces recycling and transportation costs, minimises the environmental impact and establishes a secure supply chain. In addition, CLR provides value to customers by helping them to meet their sustainability objectives and increase post-consumer recycling of aluminium. For instance, Novelis’ CLR has helped auto major Jaguar save more than $1 million to date while reducing its CO2-equivalent emissions by 80 percent over standard road transport.

Other automotive manufacturers have also embraced the process. Novelis and Ford developed the world’s largest closed-loop recycling system for the automaker’s most popular line of aluminium-intensive trucks – the F-150. Through the programme, Ford recycles and reuses more than 90 percent of scrap: enough to produce 30,000 F-150 truck bodies each month.

As the world’s largest aluminium recycler, Novelis is leveraging aluminium's unique properties to deliver sustainable solutions that help auto majors such as Jaguar, Ford, Audi, BMW, Volvo, Nissan, etc., appeal to customers, meet government regulations, reduce environmental impact, and drive cost efficiencies. That’s an all-round winning solution.

Not just the automotive industry, Novelis has also started supplying Swiss coffee company (Nestlé) Nespresso with aluminium made from 90% recycled content for its coffee capsules. These recycled capsules use 9.2% less aluminium compared to regular coffee capsules, have thinner walls, and are also 8% lighter. Using aluminium helps lock in the aroma and freshness of high-quality coffee inside, protecting it from oxygen, light, and humidity.

Both for Novelis and its customers across industries, the newly-commissioned aluminium recycling centres at Ulsan and Guthrie represent great strides towards a brighter and more sustainable future built on recycled aluminium.

• http://investors.novelis.com/2022-02-21-Novelis-to-Build-New-50-Million-Recycling-and-Casting-Center-in-South-Korea-to-Expand-Low-Carbon-Aluminum-Production
• http://investors.novelis.com/2022-01-11-Novelis-to-Build-365-Million-Recycling-Center-to-Support-North-American-Automotive-Customers-and-Reduce-Carbon-Emissions-by-More-Than-One-Million-Tons-a-Year