No other material offers the versatility and environmental benefits of aluminum.
As aluminum is infinitely recyclable, it is the material of choice for balancing the demand of a growing economy with the need to preserve the environment. Aluminum recycling provides significant energy savings in multiple sectors:
- Recycling aluminum requires 95% less energy, and produces 95% fewer greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), than manufacturing primary aluminum. Today, the global aluminum recycling industry prevents close to 170 million metric tons of GHG from entering the environment every year.
- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television for three hours; recycling all cans in the United States for one year (nearly 110 billion) would save enough power to light Washington, DC for almost four years.
- Americans recycle enough aluminum in one year to rebuild the country's entire commercial airline fleet every six months.
Since the first industrial production of aluminum in the 1880s, 75% of all material produced is still in use today. About 32% is located in the form of buildings, and another 28% in transportation products such as cars, trucks, trains and ships.
Globally, close to 70% of all aluminum cans are recycled, making it the world's most recycled packaging product. Because aluminum is infinitely recyclable, it can be reused in applications vastly different from its previous purpose, and it can also be recast into its original form. These properties make aluminum an ideal material for use in premium applications, even after being recycled many times. For example, a 50-year-old building facade can be recycled into the aluminum needed for an engine block of a new car with no degradation in quality, and an aluminum can that is recycled can be back on the grocery store shelf in just 60 days.
But there's plenty of room for improvement. The industry is committed to recycling aluminum without compromising on energy conservation or natural resource protection. Novelis is focused on increasing the end-of-life recycling of our products in partnership with other stakeholders in the aluminum production and recycling chain. In the United States, we support industry-wide efforts to increase the recycling rate for aluminum beverage cans from 54% today to 75% by 2015.
Or, to learn how you, your community or your organization can get involved in the recycling process, go to: Recycle with Novelis