Constellium recycled feedstock rate holds steady in 2024

Constellium, a global aluminum and metals producer based in Paris, says it increased its overall capacity to recycle aluminum in 2024 and maintained its companywide material use rate as melt shop feedstock last year.

The firm, which announced the release of its 2024 Sustainability Report in early March, says the September 2024 inauguration of its new $140 million recycled-content aluminum plant in Neuf-Brisach, France, has increased its companywide global recycling capacity to more than 750,000 metric tons annually.

“At Constellium, we are dedicated to driving sustainability forward, both through our leadership in aluminum recycling and our commitment to the well-being of our employees and communities,” Constellium CEO Jean-Marc Germain says. "Aluminum is an extraordinary material that enhances efficiency through lightweighting and can be infinitely recycled without losing its properties. This makes it a key enabler of a low-carbon future.”

The facility in France enhances the recycling of automotive and packaging products, Constellium says, adding that it strengthens the firm’s closed-loop recycling capabilities.

In another section of the firm’s sustainability report, Constellium indicates that, companywide, it used recycled aluminum as 42 percent of its melt shop feedstock in 2024.

That figure is identical to the 42 percent rate in 2023 and remains a few percentage points short of the company’s goal to reach 50 percent by 2030.

Constellium lists six melt shops globally capable of accepting scrap with two of those in the United States: a primary smelter in Ravenswood, West Virginia, and an aluminum can sheet production plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

While the Ravenswood facility currently accepts about 20,000 metric tons per year of preconsumer scrap annually, the Muscle Shoals plant is Constellium’s single largest recycler of aluminum scrap, with 340,000 metric tons of capacity. The facility melts predominantly used beverage cans (UBCs).

With that melt shop capacity, Constellium says in its 2024 sustainability report that it is seeking to boost the collection of UBCs in the U.S.

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“We have endorsed ambitious targets announced by the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), a U.S. trade group,” Constellium writes, noting those targets call for lifting the UBC recycling rate in the U.S. from its current estimated level of below 50 percent to 70 percent by 2030, 80 percent by 2040 and 90 percent by 2050.

“Together with The Aluminum Association and CMI, we are active at federal and state levels, working to introduce bills, signing letters to legislators and participating in webinars and seminars to promote recycling laws."