Recycling as a way of life
Think “recycling.” What comes to mind? Probably an aluminium can, and that’s good. But recycling is so much more.
Aluminium can be recycled infinitely without losing quality, and requires just 5 percent of the energy needed for primary aluminium production.
Because energy use is behind the emissions blamed for global warming, using less energy is critical. Although almost all electricity in Norway is from clean, renewable hydropower, that is not the case in the rest of the world.
Recycling is very important to sustainable development. It allows resources to be saved and waste to be reduced. Photo: Hydro
Our activities, such as alumina refining and primary aluminium production, use a lot of electricity, but aluminium can save significant amounts of energy and climate emissions during the life-span of products.
Aluminium façades can lead to lower operating costs and enable buildings to produce as much energy as they consume during operation.
Products and packaging in aluminium – yes, those aluminium cans again – reduce transport costs and emissions.
Fuel savings from cars and other vehicles using aluminium instead of steel mean fewer climate emissions.
In order to close the current gap between emissions and benefits, we are pursuing three major efforts:
- Increasing hydropower based production in Norway.
- Increasing our recycling of post-consumer scrap, and providing more metal for the automotive industry.
- Hydro's ambition is to be carbon neutral in a life-cycle perspective by 2020, and we will reach this goal. Our new target is to lower CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030.
By taking the life-cycle perspective of our production, we are aiming at our activities to contribute to reducing total greenhouse gas emissions globally. For Hydro, it’s a way of life.