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.

Dev Ahuja was recently featured in an episode of the CFO Thought Leader podcast.  The podcast takes a deep dive into the careers of finance leaders while chronicling their journey. 

“A CFO’s success is driven by much more than functional expertise.  You must be able to influence outcomes and take input from stakeholders, learn quickly from failures and triumphs, and exercise good judgement.  Above all, focus on people – a strong talent pipeline is a core factor for driving success,” said Ahuja.

To hear more of Ahuja’s thoughts and listen to the podcast in full, please click the link below

Demonstrating its sustainability leadership, Novelis recently announced that recycled aluminum accounted for 61% of its total inputs for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023. That mark is the highest percentage of recycled content in the aluminum flat rolled products industry, solidifying the company’s position as a leader in aluminum recycling and decarbonization.

Last year, Novelis recycled approximately 2.3 million tons of aluminum. That includes over 82 billion used beverage cans, which, if laid end-to-end, would circle Earth 263 times at the equator! These numbers have grown substantially, thanks in part to innovation and partnerships to increase circularity. We are investing heavily to grow our recycling capacity with nearly $2 billion of completed and announced investments since 2011.

Incorporating as much recycled aluminum as possible into our products is the single most impactful way for Novelis to reduce carbon emissions across the global value chain. Recycling aluminum is up to 95% less energy intensive – and therefore emits approximately 95% less carbon – than producing primary aluminum.

The article focuses on the latest recycling tech trends that are improving collection, identification and sorting, as well as other crucial processes and exciting opportunities like robotics and high-speed sortation for municipal and industrial scrap. 

Read the entire article here: Technology in recycling metals improves – American Recycler News, Inc.

From scrap to valuable resource: In the Car2Car research project under the leadership of the BMW Group, new technologies are developed for the optimized recycling of end-of-life vehicles. As the world’s largest, most efficient, and technologically advanced aluminium recycler, Novelis is contributing to the project by bringing its expertise in the recycling of aluminium. 

Car2Car, a consortium of partners from industry and science, is conducting fundamental work on the circular economy in the automotive sector. Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, innovative dismantling and intelligent sorting processes are being tested to increase the circularity for aluminium, steel, glass, copper, and plastics in the automotive sector. 

BMW has set itself a target to increase the share of secondary materials in vehicle production to 50%, making increased use of post-consumer materials. Novelis supports BMW in these efforts by supplying the automaker with aluminium sheet containing between 65%-75% recycled content today. The ambition of both, Novelis and BMW is to produce an outer skin panel from 100% recycled aluminium within this project.

“The Car2Car project is another important step toward economically and ecologically sensible circularity in the automotive industry,” says Michael Hahne, Vice President, Automotive, Novelis Europe. “The intelligent, efficient reuse of post-consumer material preserves resources, significantly lowers environmental impact, and, at the same time, reduces dependency on raw material imports.”  

Closed-loop aluminium is a perfect example of how the consistent use of recycled materials helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy needs: recycling aluminium uses only 5% of the energy required to produce primary aluminium, lowering carbon emissions by as much as 95%.

Artificial intelligence (AI) as an enabler for an efficient circular economy 

The Car2Car project is working toward an ideal break-even point between dismantling and post-shredding technology in terms of quality, economics and ecology. Currently, recycling processes still entail high manual workload and losses in material purity. Car2Car uses AI-based sensor technology with recyclable material recognition that identifies different steel and aluminium alloys. This way, a significantly higher-grade purity of the recovered raw materials can be achieved, and the value of the material can be preserved.

The aim of Car2Car is to provide well-founded recommendations for innovative framework conditions that enable shifting from conventional, linear process chains to higher value creation through a circular economy model. 

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

Learn More

Emilio Braghi, EVP Novelis & President Novelis Europe is an advocate for circularity as a key driver to carbon neutrality.  In his call, Emilio Braghi emphasizes the need for cross-sectorial collaboration within and beyond the industry and calls for an enabling framework that will support recycling and circularity.

Click here to watch the keynote speech of Novelis President & CEO Steve Fisher during the Circular Economy & the 21st Century City – Unlocking Economic, Social & Environmental Benefits of the Sustainable City session at the World Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

Watch Webinar Replay

Next-generation aluminium EV battery enclosure solutions

In this free, 60-minute webinar, Leon Kaunitz of Novelis presents an innovative aluminum EV battery enclosure solution that addresses the stringent safety and efficiency requirements of modern, high-volume electric vehicle platforms.

Leon Kaunitz will also discuss several structural design, thermal performance, and manufacturing and assembly solutions, which can help OEMs achieve their targets.

Key topics and takeaways:

Speaker

Leon Kaunitz, Director, Technical Development, Automotive

Watch Webinar Replay

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.