The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) has confirmed a decarbonisation collaboration.
It has partnered with The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) to accelerate the industry's transition to a circular economy
The collaboration brings together two complementary initiatives—WBCSD’s Critical Materials Collective and IAI’s Global Beverage Can Circularity Alliance (GBCCA).
It will drive meaningful progress in circular materials management to ensure aluminium remains an enabler of sustainability and decarbonisation.
Their joint efforts will strengthen the voice of aluminium producers and consumers.
They will focus on improving collection systems, enabling closed-loop recycling, designing products for recycling, preventing downcycling, and maximising high-quality recycling across the aluminium value chain.
"Although 75% of all aluminium ever produced remains in use, 71% of mixed scrap is downcycled, limiting its potential for reuse in high-performance applications,” said Quentin Drewell, Senior Director of Circular Products and Materials at WBCSD.
“By combining the GBCCA’s leadership in beverage can recovery with WBCSD’s Critical Materials Collective, we can unlock high-quality secondary materials, reducing energy by up to 95% compared to primary aluminium.
"Together, our aligned efforts and cross-value chain expertise can scale closed-loop systems, reduce waste, and accelerate global decarbonisation," he added.
Through this partnership, the GBCCA will concentrate on enhancing the collection of aluminium beverage cans, while the Critical Materials Collective will work to increase the recovery of high-quality aluminium scrap, ensuring valuable material is not lost to downcycling.
This joint initiative brings together two historically separate objectives, increasing recycling rates and boosting recycled content, into a unified strategy.
By aligning these efforts, the partnership seeks to foster true cross-sector collaboration and deliver change across the aluminium value chain.
These coordinated efforts are critical in addressing the imbalance between supply and demand for sorted aluminium scrap, which is expected to reach 60 million tonnes by 2050.
At the same time, they aim to tackle the anticipated surplus of 19 million tonnes of unsorted scrap, to ensure more material is ly recovered and reused.
"Each year, approximately 7 million tonnes of aluminium scrap are lost from the recycling cycle, with at least 6 million tonnes being unsorted and downcycled," said Marlen Bertram, IAI’s Director of Forecasts and Scenarios.
The IA said the partnership represents a significant milestone in the aluminium industry’s transition towards circularity and demonstrates how collective action can drive progress in sustainable materials management.
