Novelis invests US$90M to enhance recycling at its Latchford plant

UK – Novelis, a sustainable aluminium solutions provider, has announced a US$90 million investment to significantly boost recycling capacity at its Latchford plant in the UK.

This project aims to increase the plant’s capacity for recycling used beverage cans (UBCs) by 85 kilotonnes per year, more than doubling its current capacity.

The investment will fund the construction of a new dross house and three new bag houses, along with installing the latest shredding, sorting, de-coating, and melting technologies.

These advancements will enable the plant to handle a greater volume and variety of aluminium scrap, while also enhancing operational efficiency.

Novelis Europe anticipates these upgrades will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 350,000 tonnes annually.

Emilio Braghi, Novelis executive vice-president and president of Novelis Europe, stated, “Globally, Novelis had an average of 63% recycled content in our products in fiscal year 2024.

“This investment marks a major milestone in our ambitious program to expand our recycling capacity further. It underscores our strong commitment to sustainability as we continue to drive the transformation of the aluminium industry towards full circularity and lead the market with innovative, high-recycled, and low-carbon aluminium solutions.”

The project is set for completion by December 2026. Once completed, the Latchford facility will be equipped to recycle 100% of UBCs anticipated to be collected under the forthcoming UK deposit return scheme.

Novelis expects this scheme to establish a local, fully circular system, eliminating the need to export scrap from the country.

Allan Sweeney, Novelis Latchford plant manager, remarked, “Thanks to technological developments, we will be able to recycle all types of UBC scrap, fostering low-carbon and high-recycled content products that support not only our ambitious sustainability goals but those of our customers as well.”

In January, Novelis signed a new contract with Ardagh Metal Packaging USA to supply aluminium beverage packaging sheets to Ardagh’s production facilities in North America.

This marks Novelis’ third major contract in less than seven months for the North American beverage packaging market, highlighting the robust growth in demand for sustainable packaging options in the region.

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