Recycling aluminum requires significantly less energy than producing new primary aluminum from raw materials (bauxite ore). It is estimated that recycling aluminum uses about 95 percent less energy and emits 95 percent less GHG emissions compared to primary aluminum production.
Aluminum is an infinitely recyclable and widely recycled material. Its recyclability is one of its most significant advantages.
Aluminum can be recycled repeatedly without any loss of quality or degradation of its properties. This makes it a truly sustainable and circular material, ideally suited for a circular economy. Globally, around 75 percent of the aluminum ever produced is still in use today, a testament to its effective recycling. Aluminum’s inherent properties remain unchanged throughout recycling processes, enabling it to be recycled repeatedly.
From 1888 (when aluminum was first produced industrially) to 2025, more than 1.6 billion tons of primary aluminum (after cast house, excluding scrap) have been produced globally of which 1.2 billion tons (or 75 percent) is estimated to still be in use today, according to International Aluminum, which represents the global primary aluminum industry.
Benefits of Aluminum Recycling
Energy and Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions Savings
Recycling Circularity
Aluminum is one of the most recycled materials globally, with high recycling rates in many industries and regions. In certain sectors like building and construction, recycling rates for aluminum can exceed 90 percent. Typically, all manufacturing process (pre-consumer waste) is recycled into creating new aluminum billet. This efficient system minimizes waste and resource use.
Primary aluminum production creates pure aluminum from raw materials, while secondary production recycles aluminum scrap. Combining primary and secondary aluminum allows manufacturers to tailor alloy compositions, achieve desired properties and promote a circular economy. Primary and secondary aluminum are combined to produce new aluminum products in a process that optimizes resource utilization and cost-effectiveness.
High Recycled Content
Recycled content is measured by the percentage of recycled aluminum (versus virgin or new aluminum) in a product. Aluminum Billet used to make aluminum extrusion profiles can have recycled content up to 100 percent. According to an Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) EPD, the average recycled content of extruded material from all participants was 53 percent.
For extrusion products, the recycled content comes from two main sources:
- Post-consumer scrap: Aluminum that is recovered from a product that has reached the end of its life. It includes material generated by households or by commercial, industrial and institutional facilities in their role as end-users of the product which can no longer be used for its intended purpose (e.g. used aluminum cans, aluminum frames).
- Pre-consumer scrap: Aluminum scrap generated during the manufacturing process (e.g., clippings, trims, rework). This is material containing aluminum that is diverted from the waste stream from a manufacturing or similar process. This pre-consumer material is unfit for end use and cannot be reclaimed within the same process step that generated it. This includes both the scrap generated at the same site that produces aluminum and the fabrication scrap produced outside of the aluminum producer through downstream manufacturing processes at a different site.
Excluded as pre-consumer scrap is reutilization of materials such as rework, regrind or scrap generated in a process and capable of being reclaimed within the same process that generated it. This scrap called ‘Internal scrap’ or ‘runaround scrap’ or ‘home scrap’ and it must be excluded from the recycled content percentage calculation.