Novelis Intends to Reuse and Recycle Automated Post-Production Scrap
Novelis, a producer of sustainable aluminium solutions, has established a strategic alliance with Sortera Alloys, a firm that sorts and recycles industrial scrap metal. Novelis will utilise Sortera's sorting technology, such as data analytics and sensors, to recycle and repurpose a greater quantity of post-production and post-consumer automobile scrap.
When different aluminium alloys are mixed today, either after the automakers' stamping process or at the end of a vehicle's lifecycle, they cannot be separated back into the original alloys. As a result, higher-value alloys are degraded for use in lower-value applications.
Using the Sortera technology, Novelis will efficiently sort mixed scrap into specific alloys and recycle them back into the same product, thereby closing the loop. It will enable Novelis to meet the stringent requirements of original equipment manufacturers for performance, durability, safety, and design.
Novelis states that the agreement supports the company's sustainability targets of reducing its carbon footprint by 30 per cent by 2026 and becoming carbon neutral by 2050 or earlier.
Using recycled aluminium as an input material uses around 5% of the energy required to produce primary aluminium, eliminating nearly 95% of the carbon emissions involved with its production.
Derek Prichett, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at Novelis, said: "It also aligns with our goal of becoming a fully circular business, as we will be able to keep more automotive aluminium in our supply chain and redirect it back into the same products.”
Overall, the aluminium industry is responsible for 2 per cent of the world's manmade greenhouse gas emissions and emits more than 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, primarily due to the electricity necessary to create primary aluminium. As an enabler of the mobility, energy, and circular economy transitions, the demand for aluminium continues to increase.
Novelis is also constructing a $2.5 billion aluminium recycling and rolling facility with an emphasis on advanced sustainability and circular production.
The mill will have an initial capacity of 600,000 metric tonnes of aluminium products per year and is being constructed near Bay Minette, Alabama.
Novelis says that more than half of the facility will be devoted to meeting the growing demand for aluminium beverage can sheet in North America to provide sustainable packaging; the rest of the facility will be devoted to significantly expanding the company's recycling capabilities.
Source: Environmental Leader
