The company has been pursuing this direction for some time: "We want to become the number one in aluminum recycling in Europe," explains Boris Kurth, head of the company's can business and the recycling and foundry operations at Rheinwerk.
Over the last twenty years, the company has already built up significant recycling capacities at the site and installed Europe's most modern sorting plant for can scrap. This has successfully replaced the energy-intensive primary production of aluminum.
The fourth recycling furnace for the Rheinwerk plant will be built in 2025, with production starting at the beginning of 2026. At the same time, the third of four casting plants will be converted and optimized for recycling alloys. This will increase the company's own recycling capacity and save around one and a half million tons of carbon dioxide compared to primary production of the same quantity.
According to Kurth, the Rheinwerk is set to become the leading recycling hub in Europe in the long term. To this end, the site's strategic location in the center of Europe will be used as a hub for the industry.
New splendor in old halls
A new scrap warehouse is to be built in the old halls, which will not only provide space for storage areas, but also facilities for sampling incoming scrap and preparing it for melting. In future, the company would like to include scrap that has already completed its life cycle in the sampling process. In addition, these post-consumer scraps are to be increasingly used as a source in future.
The foundry is also expanding the storage areas for dross. This is the oxide layer that forms when the liquid aluminum cools down, which is then shed and recycled.
Everything for the quick can
The new recycling furnace then melts aluminum alloys, which are processed into beverage cans after rolling. Due to the fast-moving nature of beverage cans, the company can make efficient use of the ecological benefits of state-of-the-art technology. The life cycle of beverage cans from production to recycling is around sixty days.
Together with other companies, the company is campaigning for a higher recycling rate for beverage cans. The company also conducts research into recycling-friendly alloys and promotes deposit and return systems for beverage cans.
