Novelis works to reduce carbon footprint

Aluminum company Novelis Inc. announced Friday that it achieved new heights, setting a company record for aluminum beverage cans recycled in 2008, totaling an estimated 39 billion cans. Novelis, locally operated in Oswego, said it is the world’s largest producer of flat-rolled aluminum and the world’s leading recycler of used beverage cans. “The environmental benefit of aluminum recycling is enormous,” said Nick Madden, vice president of global procurement and metal management for Novelis. “Not only does it reduce the need to the mining of natural resources, but it eliminates large amounts of emissions generated through primary production.” By recycling used containers back into aluminum sheets for new cans, the company estimated it reduced its need for primary aluminum by more than 530,000 metric tons, saving approximately 73 million MBTUs of energy and avoided the production of nearly 5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs). “The GHGs avoided through our can recycling program over the past year is the equivalent of taking more than 900,000 gasoline-powered automobiles off the road for 12 months,” Madden explained. According to Novelis research, used beverage cans account for approximately half of all aluminum scrap processed by the company each year. Aluminum products from automobile parts to building materials can be recycled using 5 percent of the energy required to produce the same amount of new aluminum from raw materials. Novelis also said aluminum is one of the most recycled products on the planet. “When people look for ways to help the planet and reduce their carbon footprint, one easy thing they can do is make sure their empty cans go into the recycling box, not the garbage bin,” Madden said. “Every aluminum can that is recycled saves enough energy to run a television set for three hours, and there is no limit to the number of times it can go around the recycling loop.” In addition to its operations in the United States, Novelis recycled cans in three other continents. The company’s plant in Berea, Ky. is the largest dedicated can recycling facility in the world. Its U.K. and Brazil plants are the largest in Europe and South America. In the past year, the company increased its recycling capability worldwide by extending its can recycling efforts into South Korea and nearly doubling its recycling capacity in Brazil. “Recycling is central to our efforts to make our products more environmentally efficient,” Madden said. “It is also a strategic source of metal for our rolling mills. We will continue to seek ways to promote recycling and grow this part of our business.” Locally, Novelis is located at 448 county Route 1A, Oswego. For more information on the company, visit www.novelis.com.