Hydro Aluminum Recycles More in North America

Hydro Aluminum, (www.hydro.com/northamerica), Linthicum, Md., has reported that its Extrusion North America unit recycled more than 220 million pounds of aluminum scrap in 2010. Of the total, about 60 percent was post-industrial scrap and 40 percent is described by the company as post-consumer scrap.

The 220 million pound total represents a nearly 20 percent increase from the previous year’s total. The company attributes the increase to equipment investments made over the past two years that have allowed the company to recycle more painted scrap.

“Compared to 2009, our total 2010 recycling volume increased by 13 million pounds; this in a market that is still recovering from the recession,” says Lynn Brown, senior vice president for sales and marketing for Extrusion North America. “But we are particularly pleased that our efforts to increase our post-consumer recycling have yielded such good results. This fits with our global corporate mission to provide our customers with environmentally compatible products.”

In a news release announcing the 2010 volume total, the company points out that for the fourth consecutive year, Hydro’s 6000 series aluminum alloy products contained 70 percent or more recycled content. “That’s one of the exciting aspects of recycling aluminum,” says Brown. “It can be recycled innumerable times without any performance degradation, and recycling only consumes 5 percent of the energy need to make new aluminum.”

Hydro’s Extrusion North America unit re-melts scrap at its casting plants in Phoenix, St. Augustine, Fla., and Monett, Mo., where it is combined with primary aluminum to produce aluminum billets. All of the facilities are ISO 9001 compliant, according to the company.

Extrusion North America is a unit of Norsk Hydro, a Norway-based supplier of aluminum products.