Novelis launches 90% recycled aluminium can sheet

The body sheets, named the Evercan, are to be manufactured internationally by the firm, but a significant proportion is being produced at Novelis UK base at Latchford, Warrington, in Cheshire.

According to Novelis chief sustainability officer John Gardner, the 90% recycled aluminium body sheet will make up a very significant amount of Latchfords output, which has previously had around a 50% recycled content. The Latchford plant, along with two Novelis sites in the US, are the only facilities currently producing the body sheet.

When asked by letsrecycle.com if producing the new body sheet would help increase demand for used beverage cans in the UK, Mr Gardner said that in the long run he hoped the high recycled content, along with planned increases to Novelis reprocessing capability and capacity at Latchford, would help drive improvements to the UKs can recycling rates.

Already commercially available in Europe and North America, the Evercan body sheet is the worlds first independently-certified, high recycled content aluminium, according to Novelis. It has been certified by international third-party environmental certification company SCS Global Services.

Novelis claims that when combined with a can-end made from a different alloy during the manufacturing process, the Evercan body sheet will enable companies to market standard 12-ounce aluminium beverage cans as being made from 70% recycled content.

Aluminium cans produced today around the world by the firm contain an average of 40% to 50% recycled content in total.

The Warrington can recycling plant on Thelwall Lane, Latchford, was opened by the firm in 1991 and has the capacity to recycle around 130,000 tonnes of used beverage cans per year, which the firm claims is more than every aluminium drink can sold in the UK.

According to Novelis, the UK can market is around 110,000 tonnes a year, which is the equivalent to more than seven billion cans.

Mr Garnder said: Latchford is at the vanguard of Novelis aluminium can recycling operations. We are very happy with our progress in the UK can market and hope to continue with that going forward.

Last year, Novelis also announced plans to increase the recycled contents of products across all its international operations to 80% by 2020 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Progress

Commenting on the Evercan product, Phil Martens, Novelis president and chief executive, said: We are excited to be able to deliver yet another tangible result of our commitment to sustainable aluminium product innovation. Our Novelis Evercan high-recycled content beverage can body sheet, backed by the industrys first independent certification program, represents tremendous progress in sustainable consumer products packaging. As the worlds leading supplier of aluminium beverage can sheet, this is an important step toward delivering on our ultimate vision of an aluminium can with up to 100% recycled content.

John Gardner, Novelis chief sustainability officer, said: This first phase of the Novelis Evercan high-recycled content initiative serves as a critical catalyst for Novelis to work more closely with consumer brand customers, our supply chain partners and other community stakeholders to increase end-of-life recycling of used beverage containers.

We encourage wide participation from other aluminium suppliers, beverage and packaging companies, retailers and distributors, recyclers, municipalities, environmental groups and consumers themselves in promoting the use of more sustainable consumer packaging through aluminium recycling.

The development was also welcomed by Jonathon Porritt, founder director at non-profit sustainability organisation Forum for the Future.

He said: This is a really exciting development. The benefits of using recycled rather than prime-based aluminum are well understood, and for Novelis to be able to guarantee 90% recycled content beverage can body sheet represents a real breakthrough.

Novelis, a subsidiary of Asian aluminium and copper producer Hindalco Industries, operates in 11 countries internationally. Following investments of around 320 million over the last two years, it plans to double its global recycling capacity to 2.1 million metric tons by 2015.