Novelis Latchford to focus on UBC with £69m fund

The project aims to increase the facility’s recycling capacity for UBC by 85 kilotonnes per year, equalling a growth of more than 100%.

“Of all the recycling players in the European market, Novelis has the highest ambition to maximise its recycled content across our product range,” said Emilio Braghi, executive vice president of Novelis and president, Novelis Europe. “Globally, Novelis had an average of 63% recycled content in our products in fiscal year 2024. This investment marks a major milestone in our ambitious program to further expand our recycling capacity. It underscores our strong commitment to sustainability as we continue to drive the transformation of the aluminium industry towards full circularity and lead the market with innovative, high-recycled and low-carbon aluminium solutions.”

Larger volumes and new types of scrap

The investment includes the construction of a new dross house, three new bag houses and the installation of shredding, sorting, de-coating and melting technologies – enabling the plant to recycle a larger volume and new types of aluminium scrap.

The expansion of recycling capacity, as well as the implementation of advanced technologies, will be said to result in an annual CO2e reduction of “more than 350.000 tonnes” for Novelis Europe.

The project is expected to begin commissioning in December 2026. Once complete, the facility hopes to recycle 100% of UBCs to be collected under the future UK deposit return scheme.

“The investment in Latchford strengthens our position in the UK market as the largest recycler of aluminium,” said Allan Sweeney, plant manager of Novelis Latchford. “Thanks to technological developments, we will be able to recycle all types of UBC scrap, fostering low-carbon and high-recycled content products that support not only our own ambitious sustainability goals, but those of our customers as well.”