Novelis to expand UBC recycling capacity in UK

Atlanta-based aluminum recycling and rolling company Novelis Inc. reportedly will invest approximately $90 million to more than double recycling capacity for used beverage cans (UBCs) at its plant in Latchford, England, by 85,000 metric tons annually.

The investment includes constructing a new dross house and three new bag houses and installing shredding, sorting, decoating and melting technologies. These investments will enable Latchford to recycle a larger volume and new types of aluminum scrap in addition to increasing operational efficiency, Novelis says, and will result in an annual CO2e reduction of more than 350,000 metric tons for Novelis Europe.

"Of all the recycling players in the European market, Novelis has the highest ambition to maximize its recycled content across our product range," says Emilio Braghi, executive vice president of Novelis and president of Novelis Europe. "Globally, Novelis had an average of 63 percent recycled content in our products in fiscal year 2024.

“This investment marks a major milestone in our ambitious program to further expand our recycling capacity. It underscores our strong commitment to sustainability as we continue to drive the transformation of the aluminum industry towards full circularity and lead the market with innovative, high-recycled and low-carbon aluminum solutions."

The project is expected to begin commissioning in December 2026. Once complete, the facility will be able to recycle 100 percent of UBCs to be collected under the future U.K. deposit return scheme. This will create a local, fully circular system that will avoid the need to export scrap from the U.K.

"The investment in Latchford strengthens our position in the U.K. market as the largest recycler of aluminum," adds Allan Sweeney, plant manager of Novelis Latchford.

"Thanks to technological developments, we will be able to recycle all types of UBC scrap, fostering low-carbon and high-recycled content products that support not only our own ambitious sustainability goals but those of our customers as well."

The investment Novelis is making in the U.K. is among many the company has announced in the last five years to increase its recycling capacity globally and use more grades of postconsumer aluminum.

In 2019, the company invested $36 million at its Greensboro, Georgia, facility to expand and upgrade its recycling capacity with the addition of equipment for aluminum scrap recycling and a new baghouse for improved dust mitigation. Novelis also invested $375 million to expand rolling and recycling capabilities at its plant in Zhenjiang in the Jiangsu province of China.

The company also started construction in 2022 on its $2.5 billion recycling and rolling plant in Bay Minette, Alabama, that includes a new recycling center for UBCs, increasing Novelis’ recycling capacity from 74 billion UBCs to 90 million annually. That same year, the company broke ground on a new $50 million recycling center at its Ulsan Aluminum joint venture in Ulsan, South Korea, as well as on a $365 million investment in a recycling center in Guthrie, Kentucky, that will be able to cast 240,000 tons of sheet ingot for its automotive customers per year. 

The company also has partnered with and invested in Sortera Alloys Inc. of Indiana, a scrap metal sorting and recycling company that was spun out from the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) project in the U.S. Department of Energy. Sortera has developed and patented sorting technology that uses artificial intelligence-based sensor sorters to upgrade shredded nonferrous scrap feedstock streams and remove unwanted contaminants.