Only 52% of used beverage
cans (UBC) in North America are recycled. Leading aluminum producer Alcoa
wants to raise that to 75% by 2015, because recycled aluminum requires 95%
less energy to produce and can be recycled many times with no degradation.
Greg Wittbecker, Alcoa’s director, corporate
metal recycling strategy, explains, “Aluminum recycling is part of
the clean-air solution. By recycling 75% of UBCs not captured today, we
achieve an environmental savings of reducing 11.8 million metric tons of
carbon dioxide emissions a year.”
UBC recycling has fallen in North America from its high
of 68% in 1992 for a variety of reasons, including inconvenient collection
systems, technology stagnation in coated scrap processing and commercial
objectives that have not been aligned with recycling.
To meet the higher goal, Alcoa has started to expand
its recycling capacity by nearly 50% at its Tennessee plant. Additionally,
the company is partnering with a number of U.S. recycling organizations to
enhance industry alliances, as well as offering ideas to help increase the
recycling rate. Among the suggestions is making collection more convenient
for consumers and improving technical processes.
Alcoa
865-977-2011;
www.alcoa.com
