ATLANTA, April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Novelis, the world's largest manufacturer of rolled aluminum, announced today that globally the company recycled close to 36 billion aluminum beverage cans in 2007, nearly equivalent to all of the aluminum beverage cans consumed in Europe. This performance makes Novelis the world's leading recycler of used beverage cans.
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In North America, the largest market for aluminum cans, Novelis recycled approximately 23 billion units, an estimated 45 percent of all cans recycled in the region.
The company's recycling efforts in 2007 saved approximately 66 million MBTUs from being used in aluminum production -- the energy equivalent of saving more than 11 million barrels of oil. This in turn prevented the emission of nearly 4.25 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, which is the environmental equivalent of removing more than 777,000 cars from roadways for an entire year.
"Don't underestimate the environmental power of the can," said Martha Finn Brooks, Novelis president and chief operating officer. "Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television set for up to three hours."
Aluminum products such as car parts, soda cans and building materials can all be recycled into new products -- a process that requires just a fraction of the energy required to produce aluminum from primary sources. In fact, recycling aluminum takes just five percent of the energy required to produce the metal from mining and smelting. The result: 95 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
"Beverage cans are an excellent source of used aluminum because they can be recycled and returned to a store shelf in as little as 60 days," says Kate Krebs, executive director of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC). "There is no limit to the number of times an aluminum container can be recycled, making it one of the most successful examples of sustainable packaging."
Still, Americans only recycle about half of the 190,000 aluminum cans produced every minute in the United States. According to the NRC, failing to recycle the cans in just one case of soda pop is the environmental equivalent of wasting nearly half a gallon of gasoline. The energy needed to replace the aluminum cans that are discarded in the United States every 12 months could provide residential lighting to a city the size of metropolitan Atlanta for nearly two and a half years.
"More than 50 billion cans disappear into landfills every year in the U.S. alone," said Brooks. "Not only is this a missed opportunity to help our environment, it represents a tremendous amount of economic value being buried in the ground. As individuals, we can all do our part by making sure we toss our empties into the recycle bin, not the garbage bin. Let's put the power of the can to work for our environment."
To help individuals measure the benefits of aluminum recycling in their neighborhood, Novelis provides a recycling calculator on its web site. Visitors can insert the population of their community to see the potential economic and energy savings if all aluminum cans were recycled (based on US statistics). Visit http://www.novelis.com/recyclingcalculator.
About Novelis
Novelis Inc. is the global leader in aluminium rolled products and aluminium can recycling. The company operates in 11 countries, employs approximately 12,900 people and reports annual revenues of more than $11 billion. Novelis supplies premium aluminium sheet and foil products to automotive, transportation, packaging, construction, industrial and printing markets throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Novelis is a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Limited, Asia's largest integrated producer of aluminium and a leading copper producer. Hindalco is the flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai, India. For more information on Novelis, visit http://www.novelis.com/.
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SOURCE: Novelis Inc.
CONTACT: Media, Charles Belbin of Novelis Inc., +1-404-814-4260,
charles.belbin@novelis.com
Web site: http://www.novelis.com/
http://www.novelis.com/recyclingcalculator