The Recycling Partnership, a mission-driven NGO advancing a circular economy, has reportedly claimed that it collected 4.1 million pounds of post-consumer aluminium scrap annually for recycling and reduced 18,750 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, three times more than initially expected.
According to the Recycling Partnership, recycling rates of aluminium and similar materials have increased but still leave room for improvement, for which it seeks upgraded sorting equipment and stimulating investments.
The Recycling Partnership is persuading many companies and organisations to support their initiatives in developing a circular-economy in the aluminium packaging sector. Till now, the Can Manufacturers Institute, the Alcoa Foundation, and the Arconic Foundation have come forward to help the Recycling Partnership for its sustainability programme.
Recently, the Recycling Partnership has granted funds to Curbside Management to enable the organisation to capture 1.3 million pounds of recycled aluminium every year. “Through the Aluminum Recycling Initiative grant, we were able to upgrade our aluminum capture process and maximise our annual tonnage,” explained Curbside Management’s president, Barry Lawson. “Adding a larger eddy current separator was essential in increasing the capture and improving the quality of aluminum from the container line.”
Many other grantees have provided automated replacements for hand sortation, installed equipment to determine and capture missorted aluminium in the plastic container stream, and other solutions to increase aluminium collection.
Moving forward, the Recycling Partnership intends to support more such endeavours and make grant funds available for materials recovery facilities.
“There is a growing need to modernise MRFs to enhance sortation, increase capture rates, and improve bale quality,” said Adam Gendell, director of Materials Advancement at The Recycling Partnership. “These grants prove that investment can drive meaningful improvement, but we need continued support to achieve full-scale change.”
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