Novelis takes on challenge to set up world's largest aluminum recycling network

By Phil Martens
On Tuesday (May 1) I had the opportunity to speak at the CRU World Aluminium Conference  in Abu Dhabi. It was impressive to see the stunning new skyscrapers there, some of which feature Novelis’ anodized products for architecture. The buzz at CRU was positive as companies from all over the world gathered in one place to talk about the latest industry trends.

My comments were focused on delivering aluminum’s sustainability promise. When you hear people talk about sustainability as defined by environmental concerns, or in our case, recycling, it’s a lot less hypothetical than it was just a few years ago. Claims of sustainability are morphing to real operational changes at Novelis to deliver the world’s largest aluminum recycling network. We are listening to our customers and working on solutions to address their concerns about their carbon footprint.

A year ago, Novelis announced a goal to increase the recycled content of our products from 33 percent to 80 percent.  We’re now up to 39 percent, bringing our milestone of 50 percent by mid-decade within sight. We are adding new recycling capacity across the world in Korea, Brazil, Italy and Germany.

Beyond investments, however, we also have to re-think some basic science and technology behind our products and our industrial operations. This includes processing many more types of scrap beyond just used beverage cans. We’re opening a new Global Research & Technology center where we will be looking for technological breakthroughs in alloys made from more recycled metal.  We’re leading the charge for our  industry to graduate from “recyclable” to “recycled,” and we expect aluminum solutions to become even more attractive to growing numbers of  manufacturers– and consumers.  That’s good news for the entire market.

(The author is CEO of Novelis Inc, a world leader in aluminum production)