Lightweight, high strength, durability and resistance to corrosion are some of the key benefits of aluminium.

Aluminium is also one of the most environmentally friendly metals in use today.

One of the major advantages of aluminium is that it is recyclable, which is a characteristic that can be designed into any product, regardless of its use. What starts life as a walkway on a bridge can, in another incarnation, become a window or curtain walling section.

In fact, Aluminium is infinitely recyclable which is why it is often referred to as the “green metal”.  Because of this feature, 70% of all aluminium which has ever been produced is still in use.

The properties of the recycled material are no different from the primary metal.  In contrast to many other materials, aluminium’s properties never change.

However recycled aluminium uses only 5% of the energy used when producing primary metal from raw materials, reducing environmental impacts by 95%. Today 95% of aluminium used in automative applications is recycled.  For buildings and cans the recycling rate is 95% and 57% respectively. 

Hydro scores highest among aluminium companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) rankings. All process scrap, even swarf, is recycled, different alloys being segregated to achieve optimum recycling economies.

Used metal recycling is an area that Hydro will be concentrating on in the future.  By 2012 Hydro will have doubled the volume of aluminium scrap that we recycle.