Novelis on course with recycled content ambitions

Europe – Novelis was achieving a 46% recycled content in its aluminium inputs at the end of its 2014 fiscal period – an increase of 16 percentage points from the baseline years of 2007-2009 – and is ‘on track to hit 50% by the end of the year’, according to the aluminium rolling and recycling major’s latest sustainability report.

President and ceo Phil Martens has also announced a new commitment at Novelis to convert all of its beverage can body sheet production to trademarked evercan sheet by the end of 2017, thus offering certified 90% recycled content compared to the global industry average of 50%.

He has told the JPMorgan Chase & Co.′s Chief Sustainability Officers Summit in New York that this ′bold′ move ′extends our leadership in sustainability and is an important part of our long-term strategy to increase the recycled content in our products to 80% by the end of the decade′.

Available worldwide, evercan sheet is produced in Novelis facilities in North America, Europe, South America and Asia, and is priced at the same levels as standard beverage can sheet. To encourage broad adoption across the market, Novelis says it will assist other aluminium manufacturers by sharing knowledge of the process to certify high-recycled content beverage sheet.

′Through an open-sourced platform, we are committed to working with beverage brands, can makers and other aluminum manufacturers to build the closed-loop, low-carbon economy of the future,′ said Martens. ′Accomplishing this change is going to require all of these stakeholders to work together to make the use of recycled materials the standard for the beverage can industry and to increase recycling rates among consumers.′

Since 2011, Novelis has invested approximately US$ 2 billion in expanding recycling and production, doubling its recycling capacity to 2.1 million tonnes per year. The company recently opened the world′s largest aluminium recycling centre at Nachterstedt in Germany, which will process up to 400 000 tonnes of aluminium scrap each year.

For more information, visit: www.novelis.com