The sustainability of the aluminium, a round life cycle
One of the characteristics of the aluminium is that it can be 100% recycled endlessly without losing or reducing its properties.If this were not enough, it is the most common element in the Earth’s crust after oxygen and silicon. On top of this the manufacture of recycling aluminium requires only 5% of the original energy that the production from virgin raw material would use. Therefore, recycling aluminium reduce in a 95% the consumption of energy compared to its extraction from the bauxite, with the environmental advantages that this brings.
For all these characteristics, aluminium constitutes a highly sustainable material. A Delft University of Technology study shows that on averages in Europe, 96% of the aluminium in commercial and residential buildings can be collected and recycled. Consequently, the life cycle of an aluminium product it becomes circular, eliminating waste generation. This modern concept is called “cradle-to-cradle”, and it is used now to get a resource-efficient economy that makes the most of all the materials at the end of their lifespan as raw materials
Did you know that 1 billion tons of aluminium have been produced since 1886 and ¾ parts of this metal is still in use today?