ATLANTA, Sept. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Novelis Inc., a leading sustainable aluminum solutions provider, today announced that in early 2023 it signed a new anchor customer contract with aluminum can maker Ball Corporation in North America. Under the contract, Novelis will supply aluminum sheet to Ball can making plants in North America.

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By Greg Schlicht, Senior Vice President, Global Beverage Packaging

The future has never been brighter for aluminum beverage cans. No other drink container has the same high-powered combination of sustainability, marketability and durability. Add the fact that aluminum cans are lightweight and quick to cool and you’ve got what we think is a perfect container for the full range of beverages on the market today.

Where convenience used to reign supreme, sustainability now wears the crown. A 2023 McKinsey and Company survey of 11,500 consumers in 11 nations shows they want sustainable packaging to address issues of hygiene and food safety, water and air pollution, climate change and ocean litter among other global concerns. Those drivers were deemed to be extremely or very important for a large majority with most saying they are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging.

Both consumers and brands are placing more value on sustainable packaging and looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact without sacrificing product quality or convenience. Aluminum beverage cans neatly fit the bill, going from recycling bins back to store shelves in as little as 60 days. Aluminum is also infinitely recyclable, which supports a truly circular economy. In fact, aluminum cans are the most recycled beverage packages in the world and 75% of the aluminum ever produced is still in use today.

Recycling an aluminum beverage can saves approximately 95% of the energy that would be required to manufacture the same product from primary aluminum. In 2022, Novelis recycled 2.3 million tons of aluminum, including more than 82 billion used beverage cans.

Sustainability is far from the only reason that aluminum cans are in high demand. While comprising only 3% of a product’s weight, they are incredibly strong, do an excellent job of protecting beverages during transport and are sealed to block light and oxygen for maximum freshness.

Marketers love the fact that cans offer a 360-degree canvas for product branding. One glance at store shelves shows that brand owners are maximizing their packaging to grab consumers’ attention with bold colors and graphics. These branding opportunities are key reasons aluminum beverage cans are now the package of choice for a growing range of products – cold brews, canned cocktails and seltzers, and energy drinks, just to name a few.

With so much going for it, does the aluminum beverage can still have room for improvement? I say yes. At Novelis, we are working to increase the percentage of recycled content in aluminum beverage can sheet. We are doing this by creating new alloys that are able to accept even greater amounts of recycled aluminum, entering into partnerships to support improvements in collection and sorting technology, and making further investments in new plants to recycle greater amounts of aluminum. Today, Novelis’ beverage packaging sheet is comprised of more than 80% recycled content.

As part of its overall objective of being carbon neutral by 2050 or sooner, Novelis has invested heavily to grow recycling capacity, with nearly $2 billion of completed and announced investments from 2011 to date. Every investment made in beverage package recycling thus far has resulted in important steps toward a circular economy and, while the future for cans has never been brighter than it is today, Novelis believes there is plenty of room for improvement.

ATLANTA, June 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Novelis Inc., a leading sustainable aluminum solutions provider, today announced it has signed a new long-term contract with Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Sales & Services Company, which is the contracting agent for The Coca-Cola Company’s authorized North American bottlers (“CCBSS”).

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Novelis was featured in the May issue of Packaging Strategies for our innovations in the beverage can and cosmetics packaging markets.

Celebrating Aluminum’s Recyclability

Novelis Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Philippe Meyer and Senior Vice President, Global Can Sales Greg Schlicht discussed how the company demonstrates our commitment to innovation with the opening of our new customer solution center in Brazil.

“The beverage business is in growth mode, and aluminum is quickly becoming the material of choice for beverage can packaging, so we need to be prepared for increased demand as consumers recognize the many drawbacks of other, less sustainable packaging materials,” said Schlicht. “In addition, our customers are seeking to elevate package appearance, and aluminum cans provide an ideal, 360-degree canvas for eye-catching, upscale graphics and product branding. We are committed to investing in innovation to maximize these opportunities.”

Read the full article here.

Packaging Sustainability Is Beautiful

Novelis North America Account Manager, Specialty Products Jami Chime also joined Packaging Strategies to discuss the expansion of our evercycle™ portfolio to the cosmetic packaging market. evercycle™ Cosmetics is certified to contain 100% recycled aluminum and can achieve customers’ anodized quality requirements. The new alloy offers packaging customers in the beauty, skincare and wellness space an infinitely recyclable solution compared to plastic alternatives.

“With increasing consumer desire for more sustainable products, Novelis is proud to offer our customers a new packaging solution that is not only made from 100% recycled aluminum but one that can also be easily recycled again,” said Chime. “Given the advantages of recycling aluminum, Novelis aims to enable more sustainable solutions alongside our customers. As we take steps to decrease carbon emissions 30% by 2026 and become a carbon neutral company by 2050 or sooner, we remain committed to increasing the amount of recycled content in our products.”

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ATLANTA, March 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Novelis Inc., a leading sustainable aluminum solutions provider and the world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, today announced the opening of its Customer Solution Center (CSC) for the beverage packaging market in São José dos Campos, Brazil. The center will focus on advancing aluminum beverage can innovation and sustainability solutions in response to growing market demand.

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ZÜRICH, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Novelis Inc., a leading sustainable aluminum solutions provider and the world’s largest aluminium recycler and manufacturer of beverage can sheet, today announced the company’s new laminated aluminium surfaces for beverage can ends that will be showcased September 27 to 29 at ALUMINIUM 2022 in Düsseldorf. This innovative application improves beverage container appearance, increases production process efficiencies and lowers CO₂ emissions for European beverage brands and can makers. As a result, it further advances Novelis’ leadership in the growing market for aluminium beverage packaging.

Read the full report here.

The infinitely recyclable Ball Aluminum Cup now boasts the highest recycled content rate of any beverage packaging in its category.

Learn More

The aluminium beverage can is the most frequently recycled beverage packaging in the world, averaging 69% globally, rising to 76% in Europe. Cans are super lightweight and made from a homogenous material – ideally designed for sorting and infinite recycling.

Today, only 3 % of the filled can’s weight is packaging, 97 % is the beverage. Aluminium cans support a truly circular economy. If properly collected and recycled, they can remain in the system forever.

Have a look at the can’s journey from consumption and recycling to refilling in about 60 days. As the leading producer of aluminium can sheet and the world’s largest recycler of aluminum, we recycle more than 82 billion cans annually. For the video creation, we cooperated with our key customer Ball Corporation, a global leader in infinitely recyclable aluminium packaging.

Seeing the devastation in many parts of Texas following an unprecedented Artic blast, which unfortunately resulted in lives lost and widespread lack of access to heat, electricity and clean water, Novelis and Ball teamed up to fund and deliver 2,100 cases of canned water. The canned water is being distributed by the Montgomery County Food Bank.

Due to ongoing conversations with Ball exploring opportunities to expand our customer-supplier relationship to amplify our collective community impact, Ball and Novelis worked with our mutual non-profit partner CannedWater4Kids to fund the cost of the canned water and delivery to Montgomery County Food Bank. At the time of our coordinated response, five Montgomery County utility districts were under boil-water notices, while others had no access to water at all.

“The Montgomery County Food Bank has severely reduced supplies as we continue to support mobile food and water distributions, warming centers, our partner Houston Food Bank, and local partner agencies,” said John Kreger, Director of Sourcing and Industry Partnerships, Montgomery County Food Bank. “Due to our limited supplies of case counted water we’re at risk of being unable to meet the demand in our community without assistance from companies like Ball and Novelis.”