Aluminium Recycling

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Aluminium Recycling

• Key Messages
• November 2006

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Economic Importance of Recycling

• Aluminium can be recycled over and over again
  without loss of properties.
• The high value of aluminium scrap is a key
  incentive and major economic impetus for
  recycling.
• The economic importance of aluminium recycling
  globally cannot be overstated in an aluminium
  recycling industry that effectively tripled its
  output from 5 million tonnes in 1980 to over 15
  million tonnes in 2004.

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Worldwide Evolution of Recycled Aluminium
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Environmental Importance of Recycling

• Aluminium recycling benefits present and future
  generations by conserving energy and other
  natural resources.
• It saves up to 95 of the energy required for
  primary aluminium production, thereby avoiding
  corresponding emissions, including greenhouse
  gases.

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Recycling Aluminium Conserves Energy

• The recycling of aluminium requires up to 95
  less energy than that required for primary
  aluminium production.
• Recycling aluminium from end-of-life products
  saves close to 80 million tonnes of greenhouse
  gas emissions per year.

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Global Aluminium Flow Model

• The Industry has designed a Sustainability
  Materials Flow Model to track aluminium
  throughout its lifecycle from mining to product
  use to recycling.
• The main objective is to identify present and
  future recycling flows and the scope for further
  recycling.

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Global Aluminium Flow Model

• Results for 2004 show that
• Aluminium metal is accumulating in society.
• The stock in use increased by 21.1 millions
  tonnes (in 2004) after allowing for the amount of
  aluminium discarded in products including metal
  recycled.
• The stock in use has grown to 540 million tonnes.
  
• The industry produces 15.1 million tonnes of
  recycled aluminium, of which approximately 45 is
  produced from old scrap.

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2004 Global Aluminium Cycle
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Recycling Rates

• Global aluminium recycling rates are high, up to
  90 for transport and construction applications
  and about 60 for beverage cans.
• The amount of aluminium packaging recycled
  depends greatly upon individual national
  legislative requirements, local practices and the
  willingness of the end-user to recycle. Globally
  rates vary from about 25 to 85, depending on
  the country.

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Collection the Key to Higher Recycling

• Industry continues to recycle, without subsidy,
  all the aluminium collected from end-of-life
  products as well as from fabrication and
  manufacturing process scrap.
• With the help of appropriate authorities, local
  communities and society as a whole, the amount of
  aluminium collected could be increased further.
• Model projections show that global recycled metal
  supply (back to the industry) from old scrap will
  double by 2020 from today's (2004) level of 6.8
  million tonnes.

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Contribution to the Aluminium Supply

• The growing markets for aluminium are supplied by
  both primary and recycled metal sources. The
  proportion of recycled aluminium to the global
  demand has grown from less then 20 in 1950 to up
  to 34 in 2004.
• Increasing demand for aluminium and the long
  lifetime of many products mean that, for the
  foreseeable future, the overall volume of primary
  metal produced from bauxite will continue to be
  substantially greater than the volume of
  available recycled metal (close to 40 by 2020).

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Share of Recycled and Primary Aluminium
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Worldwide Annual Old Scrap Recycled by Market
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Reduction of Environmental Impact

• The industry employs a life cycle approach to
  address the challenges of environmental impacts
  such as climate change, focusing not only on
  direct emissions and the energy required to
  produce aluminium products, but also on the
  energy savings to be made through their use,
  recycling and reuse.

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Reduction of Environmental Impact

• Today, recycling of old scrap saves close to 80
  million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per
  year, equivalent to the annual emissions from 15
  million cars.
• Since its inception in, the recycling of old
  scrap has already avoided over one billion metric
  tonnes of CO2 emissions.
• Worldwide, aluminium products are becoming less
  greenhouse gas intense on a per tonne shipped
  basis due to increase in the percentage of
  recycled metal relative to primary metal and the
  reduction in emissions from primary aluminium
  smelters.

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Avoided EmissionsAnnual and Cumulative Impact
from End-of-Life Aluminium Recycling.
Since its inception, post consumer aluminium
recycling has already saved over a billion
metric tonnes CO2
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Worldwide, Aluminium Products are Becoming Less
GHG Intense on a Per Tonne Shipped Basis

• This is due to
• Lower emissions from primary aluminium facilities
• Improvements in energy efficiency
• AND
• Increases in the percentage of recycled metal
  relative to primary metal

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Aluminium in Use Resource and Energy Bank

• About three quarters of the metal ever produced
  since commercial production began in 1870 is
  still in productive use, which is equal to 540
  million tonnes.
• Recycling the metal currently stored in use would
  equal 15 years primary aluminium output.

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The Aluminium Inventory

• Since 1888, over 700 million tonnes of aluminium
  have been produced.
• About three quarters of this metal is still in
  productive use.
• Recycling the metal currently stored in use would
  equal 15 years primary aluminium output.

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Aluminium in Use Resource and Energy Bank

• The total energy bank in use accounts for
  almost 50 000 petajoules, which exceeds the
  energy need to power Africa and Latin America for
  a year or is equivalent to the annual total
  energy generated globally from coal.
• These banked energy and metal resources can be
  made available through recycling not just once
  but repeatedly and benefit future generations.