Novelis, the aluminium rolling and recycling company, have announced the commissioning of its expanded recycling plant in Latchford, Warrington.
Yesterday’s (4 November) announcement represents an investment of approximately £6 million to increase the plant’s capacity by ‘over a third’.
New equipment will include a dedicated furnace, upgraded casting system, magnetic separation and handling equipment, and environmental controls.
The Novelis Latchford plant currently employs approximately 135 people and processes 160,000 tonnes of aluminium annually. With the expansion to 220,000 tonnes, Novelis expects the centre to require more than 30 additional full-time jobs.
In doing so, Novelis hopes to become ‘Europe’s largest closed-loop recycling operation for automotive aluminium rolled products.’
The company claims that the expansion will result in nearly 530,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas savings over the total aluminium value chain compared to using primary aluminium, with each 10-12 tonne recycled ingot saving 100 tonnes of greenhouse gas compared to those produced from primary aluminium.
“Responding to realities”
Erwin Mayr, Senior Vice President and President, Novelis Europe commented: “With the commissioning in Latchford, we are expanding our recycling capabilities and developing efficient manufacturing systems along our automotive supply chain.
“Responding to the realities of our increasingly resource constrained world and demands for a more sustainable economy, Novelis is transforming its business model to be largely based on closed-loop recycling.”
Reaching ‘aggressive’ goals
This project is the latest in a series of recycling expansion projects launched across Europe by Novelis over the past two years, totaling approximately £570 million.
These projects are designed to increase Novelis’ recycling capacity to 2.1 million tonnes by 2015 and help the company achieve its ‘aggressive’ goal of increasing the recycled content of its products to 80 per cent by 2020.
Read more about Novelisand their sustainability report.
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