Novelis to convert its beverage can sheet production to Evercan

The aluminum rolling and recycling company Novelis, Atlanta, has announced that it will be converting all of its beverage can body sheet to its Evercan sheet by the end of 2017. The company says Evercan is the world's first certified high-recycled-content aluminum sheet for beverage cans.

“The transition to a low-carbon, circular economy requires innovation and disruption to create a measurable impact," says Phil Martens, Novelis president and CEO. “Our plan to produce only Evercan body sheet by 2017 is a bold move that extends our leadership in sustainability and is an important part of our long-term strategy to increase the recycled content in our products to 80 percent by the end of the decade.”

The commitment means that all can body sheet produced by Novelis will be certified  to contain 90 percent recycled content compared with the global industry average of 50 percent. Evercan sheet is produced in Novelis facilities in North America, Europe, South America and Asia. The company says the Evercan body sheet is priced at the same levels as standard beverage can sheet and there is no difference in quality, technical characteristics or run speed at customer plants between Evercan and standard sheet. 

“We understand that the shift to a certified, high-recycled content aluminum beverage can sheet represents a significant change for the industry with far-reaching effects,” Martens adds. “Through an open-sourced platform, we are committed to working with beverage brands, can makers and other aluminum manufacturers to build the closed-loop, low-carbon economy of the future. Accomplishing this change is going to require all of these stakeholders to work together to make the use of recycled materials the standard for the beverage can industry and to increase recycling rates among consumers.”

To encourage broad adoption of high recycled-content aluminum can stock, Novelis says it will help other aluminum manufacturers by sharing knowledge of the process to certify high-recycled content beverage sheet using the methodology of SCS Global Services (SCS), the auditing firm that certifies Evercan's recycled content.