Demands for increasing recycled material content in packaging and recycling via closed product loop recycling have been gathering momentum recently, and the debate now shifts towards whether such a process will deliver environmental and economic benefits for aluminium aerosols, as opposed to a closed material loop approach.
The International Organisation of Aluminium Aerosol Container Manufacturers (AEROBAL) and the European Aluminium Slug Producers group (ASP), organised under the umbrella of the German Aluminium Association (GDA), commissioned the Swiss research institute Carbotech to investigate this subject.
In terms of the framework conditions, the study shows that there is not just one aluminium specification, but different aluminium alloys to produce tailor-made aluminium products with different properties.
“After recycling, the use of the recycled material can be more appropriate than primary aluminium for certain aluminium applications, if already existing alloying elements in the recycled aluminium support the required specifications,” explains the report.
“Additionally, it must be considered that today, demand for recycled aluminium is much higher than supply.
“Roughly 25 per cent of the global aluminium demand can be satisfied by recycled aluminium. Thus, a focus on the recycled content has no direct influence on the global environmental impacts, but only on the distribution to the different applications.”
Economically and environmentally speaking, the focus on a closed aluminium product loop in the overall global aluminium market need not be an advantage, as the report states. In specific cases where you get aluminium scrap with the needed properties without huge efforts, it could be.
However, the report claims higher distances for scrap transportation, additional sorting and melting steps with ensuing higher material losses in a closed product loop system, increase adverse environmental impacts.
Besides these negative environmental effects, these system-related characteristics deteriorate the economic performance of a closed loop recycling system for high-purity aluminium aerosol cans, but it would lead to higher cost per container.
“The best strategy is to focus on high collection and sorting rates to maximise the amount of aluminium that stays in the market in the sense of a closed material loop,” says Dr. Fredy Dinkel, Carbotech consultant and project manager.
“Thus, recycling rates should be further increased because they sustainably reduce the environmental burden, irrespective of the application the recovered material will flow into.”
The EU Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan is one of a few other initiatives, which aim to promote extended producer responsibility systems in Europe.
These measures also boost investments in sophisticated collection and recycling technologies, ensuring a higher quantity and better quality of the sorted and recycled aluminium packaging.
