Novelis Inc., a leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, will invest $365 million to build a highly advanced recycling center for automotive in North America. With an annual casting capacity of 240 kt of sheet ingot, they expect the facility to reduce the company’s carbon emissions by more than one million tons each year. The new recycling facility will be built adjacent to Novelis’ existing automotive finishing plant in Guthrie, Kentucky.
The center will enable Novelis to grow its closed loop recycling programs with more automotive customers in North America. Through closed loop recycling, the company takes back the aluminum remaining after automotive parts are stamped from sheets and remakes it into the same product for new vehicle production. The center will also have the capability to process aluminum from vehicles at the end of their lifecycle. Using recycled aluminum as input material requires only 5 percent of the energy used to make primary aluminum, thus avoiding 95 percent of the carbon emissions associated with production.
“Novelis aims to be the world’s leading provider of low-carbon, sustainable aluminum solutions that advance our business, industry and society toward the benefits of a circular economy,” said Steve Fisher, president and chief executive officer of Novelis, Inc. “Through this investment, we will continue to increase the amount of recycled content in our products, reducing our CO2 emissions and moving us closer to carbon neutrality.”
The new recycling center will be equipped with industry leading processes and capabilities, including advanced shredding and sorting technology, as well as energy efficient innovations to support the company’s sustainability goal to reduce energy intensity by 10 percent by 2026. Groundbreaking is scheduled for early 2022, with commissioning expected in 2024.
When fully operational, the expansion will add approximately 140 new jobs in Guthrie. This announcement is on the heels of Novelis’ October grand opening of the automotive finishing plant in Guthrie, which currently employs 150 people and will grow to 190 over the next two years.