|
PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP AND RECYCLING
Alcan is often questioned about the
recycled content of its products. The recycled content
is often used in "green" questionnaires aiming
to assess the environmental impacts of materials used,
where materials with a high recycled content are preferred.
This concept was introduced to promote resource conservation
and is a valid concept for materials which are difficult
to recycle, such as plastics and bricks, or which would
otherwise be disposed by incineration or landfilling.
Although aluminum recycling is well advanced, especially
in closed-loop aluminum beverage can recycling worldwide,
a much better indicator for environmental performance
of metals is the recycling and recovery rate at the
end of the life of the product, as metals that are not
collected cause a waste of resources and associated
impacts.
|
 |
 |
Note: The value of aluminum's recyclability
is well documented in earlier Alcan Sustainability Reports.
Alcan is currently working on recycling issues with other
global aluminum companies as well as other metal producers
(steel, iron, copper, etc.) within the International Council
on Mining & Metals. Their efforts are aimed at providing
common principles and a methodology with respect to assessing
the sustainability of recycling strategies. This will be used
to demonstrate that the life cycle aspects of recycling and
the recovery rate of the product at end-of-life are extremely
valid indicators for reducing environmental impacts.
As a part of life cycle thinking, Alcan supports:
| • |
Design for recycling, i.e., facilitating dismantling
of aluminum from end-of-life products; |
| • |
Campaigns aimed at increasing collection rates, e.g.,
of used beverage cans; |
| • |
Cooperation with operations involved in scrap recovery,
refining and re-melting to make sure that recycled aluminum
has the same value as primary metal. |
In the context of increased global demand for aluminum and
considering that the average life span of aluminum building
products is 30 to 100 years, and transportation products,
10 to 50 years, there is only a limited supply of used aluminum
products. To ensure the best recycling opportunities, Alcan
strives to use post-consumer aluminum where it is most cost
and environmentally effective, such as in certain specific
casting alloys. To see volumes of aluminum in various uses
globally according to the most recent estimates of aluminum
flows by the European Aluminium Association, consult the Global
Aluminum Flow (figure 1).
Figure 1: Global Aluminum Flow
Click
here for a PDF version of this graphic (51 KB).
You need Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®
to view this graphic.
|
