metal recycling
  • The unique properties of aluminum are unaffected by the recycling process, so aluminum can be reused countless times with no loss of quality.
  • Best of all, the recycling process for aluminum is significantly more energy and CO2 efficient than its primary production, requiring only about 5 percent of the energy.
  • This makes recycling of aluminum a must-do in terms of sustainability.

Real Alloy plays a crucial role in contributing to a circular economy by recycling aluminum and transforming it into new materials for industrial production. Recycling helps preserve natural resources and energy, while maintaining highest quality of finished products. 

REAL ALLOY has the knowledge, experience, and technical equipment to recycle a large variety of input materials, whether generated from production processes, or available as post-consumer scrap. These include turnings, cuttings, foils, shredded scrap, skimmings, and drosses. They can be converted into different shapes and quality grades to meet the needs of customers in a broad variety of industry segments. We deliver these highly versatile alloys in molten and solid ingot forms. 

Molten aluminum is delivered directly to the customer in specially designed crucibles. This reduces metal losses due to oxidation and helps our customers save significant amounts of energy that they would otherwise require to melt solid input material. Just-in-time molten metal delivery also reduces production complexity for our customers and helps them improve their process efficiency. Solid aluminum is produced to meet customer requirements for quality and chemical specifications, while also presenting a low CO2 footprint. 

Secondary Production is the process of recycling aluminum scrap into aluminum that can be used again—an environmentally sound process that is around 95% more energy efficient than primary production.

ENVIRONMENTAL LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

Recycling of aluminum existed long before the circular economy became a major trend. Used aluminum parts, alloys and scrap are not only too valuable to dispose of, but they are also great for reprocessing and reusing.

Recycling aluminum is much more efficient than producing it from raw materials. Remelting consumes only about 5 percent of the energy needed for primary production. In addition, aluminum loses none of its properties through recycling. This has two advantages; the metal retains its value and can be infinitely reprocessed. Recycled alloys are therefore the logical choice for environmentally conscious customers who want greater efficiency in their metal supply.

PRODUCT DESIGN

A growing number of customers across all industry segments are demanding metal based on low CO2 footprints. Together with customers, REAL ALLOY not only explores suitability and availability of possible recyclable materials, but also discusses specification of products, their applications, and opportunities for reducing energy and carbon intensity. 

COLLECTION AND RECYCLING OF PRODUCTS AT END-OF-LIFE

Reclaiming aluminum scrap from waste streams and returning it as a resource into the value chain is the essence of aluminum recycling and the core of REAL ALLOY’s business model. Recycling is key to the supply of low CO2 metal.  For aluminum, typical end-of-life scrap types include used beverage cans, window profiles, aluminum siding, construction waste, shredded automobiles, or market scrap. 

REAL ALLOY offers long-standing experience, the required know-how and state-of-the-art technology for sourcing and processing these scrap types. We are familiar with the main challenges around processing such scrap, such as contamination from other materials or varying alloy compositions in scraps from different uses. Our sampling and testing routines are designed to tightly control the remelting process and product quality.

ENVIRONMENT

As a recycler of aluminum scrap, our business model incorporates resource efficiency, environmental protection, and energy management. The focus of our operations is reclaiming valuable metal from waste and returning it back into the value chain. 

Careful scrap management, sophisticated blending, advanced production technology, and strict quality control allow us to achieve maximum recoveries of high-quality recycled aluminum alloys with the least possible demand on energy and other resources. The environmental impact of our business activities is regularly and comprehensively monitored and documented through internal programs. 

Additional energy savings result from the shipment of liquid aluminum; with every kilogram of liquid aluminum delivered, the customer saves approximately 1.19 kWh of energy that would otherwise have to be spent on heating and melting the aluminum (based on 25% thermal efficiency).
There are substantial energy savings associated with our recycling of aluminum scrap and drosses.  Compared to the average carbon footprint of primary aluminum used in North America (7.2 kg CO2/kg Al for Scopes 1 and 2, according to TAA, The Environmental Footprint of Semi-Fabricated Aluminum Products in North America, Life Cycle Assessment Report 2022), the amount of aluminum recycled by REAL ALLOY saves more than 4,000,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year. 
The supply of liquid aluminum also promotes resource efficiency in another important way. When solid aluminum is melted, typically about 1 percent of the metal is lost through re-oxidation to aluminum oxide. Our supply of liquid aluminum to our customers reduces not only energy consumption and CO2 emissions, but also saves actual material which would have been lost if our customer had to remelt solid aluminum.  

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

Addressing climate change, a major global challenge, is an important issue for REAL ALLOY.  We seek to reduce our CO2 emissions and the carbon footprint of our products. Our focus on these issues is consistent with increasing demands from the general public, policy makers and our customers, for transparency and firm action.  

We assess all options for improving the efficiency of our consumption of relevant energies, including natural gas, electric power, and transportation fuels. This assessment includes all furnace and burner operations, electrical drives (especially bag house fans or compressors), combined heat and power generation, the use of industrial waste heat, the sourcing of renewable electricity, optimized transportation routing of vehicles, and optimized just-in-time material flows.

BIODIVERSITY

All REAL ALLOY sites in North America have a long-standing industrial history, located in areas which have been used for industrial purposes for many decades. Their operating permits are based on national and local laws and regulations. This legal framework was designed and issued taking account of all possible environmental impacts, including the impact on biodiversity from emissions to air, water and waste.