"Speira is heavily investing in recycling assets like new recycling furnaces," Reinhard Pritzlaff, Technical Advisor, Speira

After completing his studies in process engineering at Cologne University, Reinhard Pritzlaff began his career as a development engineer at the Alunorf aluminium rolling mill in Germany. He now applies his technical expertise to support customers. Since 2021, Reinhard Pritzlaff has been working as the Technical Advisor at Speira, specialising in Aluminium Applications Optimisation.

AL Circle: What do you think is the future of recycling – Do you think aluminium recycling is a challenging task? How well do you think the industry has geared up in terms of recycling or circular economy?

Reinhard Pritzlaff: The future of recycling is based on two important pillars: On the one hand, better collection and deposit schemes for the consumer and, on the other hand, broad investments in sorting and recycling technology. Even more difficult or critical scraps must be able to be recycled.

The industry has geared up with recycling technology development and the establishment of collection systems. As scrap is a valuable source, it is financially and, from an ecological point of view, extremely attractive to bring scraps back into the metal loop.

AL Circle: Aluminium scrap plays a pivotal role in secondary aluminium production. What is your foresee about the future of aluminium scrap in terms of collection & trading? How is the world moving towards sustainability or circular economy?

Reinhard Pritzlaff: There is a huge potential for establishing better and more efficient systems for collecting and trading scrap. It will also be much more focused on keeping the metal in regions where it was initially used and no longer exporting it to foreign countries for sorting and remelting.

On the consumer side, people need to understand that no metal should be put into landfill or wasted in another way. Aluminium – like other metals- is valuable and needs to be recycled and put back into the metal loop.

AL Circle: Various governments are putting tariffs in the aluminium trade. How do you think these tariffs will impact the aluminium scrap market?

Reinhard Pritzlaff: Certainly, this will have an influence also on the scrap market, but anyhow, it is much more important to collect, sort and recycle aluminium – independent from where it originally came from or if any tariffs had been applied.

AL Circle: What are the key challenges the aluminium recycling industry is facing in terms of production technology, and sustainability? How is SPEIRA addressing these challenges?

Reinhard Pritzlaff: In my eyes, the key challenges are

1. Full commitment and understanding of the metal fabrication industry to collect and pre-sort their scraps. Not every type of scrap can be used for every type of product. For example, casing or combustion engine parts are made from cast alloys. These alloys will be kept for cast products. They should not be mixed with rolled or extruded scraps, as these are wrought and well-formable alloys. Scraps or even final products (like cars), which contain different aluminium products, must be able to be separated.
2. Further development in sorting and shredding technology and furnace technology is needed to process even more critical scrap (like contaminated scrap or slag/dross).
3. Further alloy and product development should be done so that more recycled metal can be used in the products.

Speira is heavily investing in recycling assets like new recycling furnaces in our Rheinwerk Recycling Center in Germany, our rolling mill in Holmestrand, and new rotary furnaces in our slag processing plants. In the midterm, more than 50 per cent of our metal products will be based on recycled metal.

AL Circle: Why do you think aluminium is gaining popularity within the metal industry? Why is it called the metal of the future? What role does SPEIRA play in supporting the future of sustainability and recycling?

Reinhard Pritzlaff: Aluminium is the metal of the future. Due to its unique combination of properties like lightweight, corrosion resistance, good formability, and conductivity for electricity and heat, its range of applications is nearly endless. All future technology will require aluminium be it e–mobility or renewable energy production. We, as Speira, are cooperating closely with our customers to develop these technologies further.

AL Circle: How is SPEIRA positioning itself to support the growth and technological advancements of the aluminium industry as a whole?

Reinhard Pritzlaff: Speira is selectively investing in its production equipment to be part of the growth – on one side, to increase capacity and output, and on the other hand, to be at the technological forefront.

AL Circle: How is SPEIRA redefining the limits of circularity? What are some of the latest technological innovations SPEIRA has introduced to the market, and how have these been received by the industry?

Reinhard Pritzlaff: Redefining the limits of circularity means that we are constantly challenging ourselves to improve our processes in terms of energy efficiency and ecological impact, that we are looking to create more sustainable product solutions together with our customers and that we do everything to keep the metal in the loop. As an individual, I am a strong believer in the principle of “use less”, “use better” and “re-use”.

And this is what I want to apply also in my business life – cooperate with customers, e.g. downgauging, optimising design and taking end-of-life scenarios for their product into consideration. As an example, Speira is putting new products into the marine market: One is a technological innovation called VIA Maris Njordal, offering a weight-saving potential of about 15 per cent compared to traditional shipbuilding plates (so that perfectly fits into the “use less” strategy) and another example is our product range of “ORBIS” products for the transportation and building industry, where we use more than 75 per cent of external market scraps to produce our alloys. This dramatically drops the carbon footprint of these products to values below 2.5 kg CO2e/kg Al – which is less than 50 per cent compared to the average European metal use.

AL Circle: What steps can individuals and industries take to ensure valuable materials are kept in circulation? How does recycling contribute to reducing carbon emissions and preventing landfill waste?

Reinhard Pritzlaff: As individuals, we need to use the established collection and deposit systems. This has proven to be a great solution – as an example, nearly 99 per cent of all beverage cans in Germany are now recycled. In other countries, this is in the development phase or is still not established. The potential is incredibly high. As an industry, we have to properly organise scrap collection, sorting and recycling with all involved partners – aluminium producers, metal fabricating industry and scrap trading companies.

AL Circle: How do you envision the role of recycled metals in the next decade of product manufacturing?

Reinhard Pritzlaff: This is simple -we need to do our utmost to save the valuable resources of our planet. So let´s recycle. There is no other way.