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Alcoa Announces Ambitious UBC Recycling Rate Goal

Alcoa has established a goal to raise the industry’s used beverage can (UBC) recycling rate in North America from its current 52 percent rate to 75 percent by 2015.

In the U.S. aluminum beverage can market of more than 1.5 million metric tons per year, about 800,000 tons of UBCs are currently being recycled. Wittbecker said that the U.S. recycling rate has fallen steadily from its high of 68 percent in 1992. In comparison, Brazil and Japan report phenomenal recycling rates of nearly 95percent and 92 percent, respectively, and the global average is 60 percent.

Wittbecker cited several reasons why recycling has fallen in North America, including inconvenient collection systems, technology stagnation in coated scrap processing and commercial objectives that have not been aligned with recycling.

If 75 percent of UBCs not currently recycled in North America are brought back into the system that equates to about 600,000 metric tons of aluminum, Wittbecker explained. That 600,000 metric tons is equal to a savings of 1,286 megawatts of electricity, or the equivalent of two average sized coal fired power plants running at maximum efficiency 24/7.

"Aluminum recycling is part of the clean air solution. By recycling 75 percent of UBCs not captured today, we achieve an environmental savings of reducing 11.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year," he said.

Alcoa last month began a $22 million investment to expand recycling capacity at its Tennessee Operations by nearly 50 percent. The investment furthers Alcoa’s position as a leader in aluminum scrap processing technology. The expansion will utilize state-of-the-art environmental and fuel efficiency technologies as well as support future flexibility to process other aluminum scrap types.

Wittbecker outlined a number of possible approaches to help increase the recycling rate, including behavior changes, making recycling and collection more convenient, technical improvements for processing coated materials and enhanced commercial alliances across all in the industry.

Wittbecker reiterated Alcoa’s willingness to stand ready to work with a broad coalition of partners including the U.S. Aluminum Association Recycling Committee, Aluminum Can Council, Curbside Value Partnership, and Institute of Recycling Industries, among others on a focused approach to raising recycling rates.