Aluminium rolling and recycling company Novelis has announced that it will convert all of its beverage can body sheet production to its high-recycled content sheet, evercan™, ‘by the end of 2017’.

Billed as ‘the world's first certified high-recycled content [aluminium] for beverage cans’ when it launched last year, evercan sheeting contains a ‘minimum’ of 90 per cent recycled aluminium (compared to an industry average of 50 per cent).

Speaking of the commitment to switch to evercan, Novelis President and CEO Phil Martens, said: "The transition to a low-carbon, circular economy requires innovation and disruption to create measurable impact. 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 move follows on from a report written by sustainability not-for-profit organisation Forum for the Future (in association with Madano Partnership) that found that 62 per cent of consumers said they would feel ‘negatively’ toward brands that do not use sustainable packaging, with 90 per cent prepared to boycott brands they consider to be acting irresponsibly.

Novelis to work with industry to boost high-recycled sheeting uptake

To encourage broad adoption across the market, Novelis has said it will help other aluminium manufacturers by sharing knowledge of the process to certify high-recycled content beverage sheet using the methodology of SCS Global Services (SCS).

Martens continued: “We understand that the shift to a certified, high-recycled content [aluminium] beverage can sheet represents a significant change for the industry with far-reaching effects.

"Through an open-sourced platform, we are committed to working with beverage brands, can makers, and other [aluminium] 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."

Available worldwide, evercan sheet is produced in Novelis facilities in North America, Europe, South America and Asia.

The evercan end sheet will be available globally next year.

Find out more about the evercan sheet.