The world’s biggest premium aluminium manufacturer, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), reported that it catered 203,000 tonnes of waste to other industries as feedstock in 2022. The quantity was almost twice as much as the EGA produced in 2022, resulting in lower stocks than in prior years and a 40 per cent increase in 2021 as the economy recovered from COVID-19.
EGA has collaborated with other businesses in the UAE for more than a decade to identify profitable use for aluminium manufacturing waste. Reuse helps create a circular economy by keeping waste out of landfills and minimizing the need to use new natural resources.
The most significant by-product of the aluminium smelting process, and one EGA leads the world in recycling, is discarded pot lining.
Experts in the field estimate that the used pot lining produced by the aluminium industry each year—over 1 million tonnes worldwide—is stored for an extended period.
The cement industry contributes to reducing greenhouse gases and nitrogen oxides by using EGA's used pot lining as an alternative raw material.
Carbon dust, dross, and potline process waste are some of the other significant by-product streams for which EGA has discovered new uses with other industries.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, the Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “Reducing humanity’s burden on the environment while further improving global living standards requires us to maximise the use of the resources we have, and that means thinking of all waste as potentially valuable feedstock. With our partners in other industries, we have made great progress at EGA in developing a circular economy in the UAE. I am confident we will make further progress in the years ahead.”
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