FDBusiness.com

Novelis has launched ‘evercan’, a new aluminium body sheet specifically designed for beverage cans, comprising a minimum of 90% recycled material.

According to the US-based company – the global leader in aluminium rolling and recycling – the evercan aluminium sheet has been independently certified for high recycled content by SCS Global Services, a leading third-party environmental, sustainability and food quality certification provider.

“As the world’s leading supplier of aluminium beverage can sheet, this is an important step toward delivering on our ultimate vision of an aluminium can with up to 100% recycled content,” says Phil Martens, Novelis president and CEO.

Novelis is initially offering aluminium can body sheet guaranteed to contain at least 90% recycled content.

When combined with the can end, made of a different alloy, the new Novelis evercan will enable beverage companies to market their beverages in (US) standard 12-ounce aluminium cans certified as made from “a minimum of 70% recycled content”.

“The Novelis evercan aluminium beverage can body sheet is commercially available now in North America and Europe, and will be available worldwide later this year,” the company says.

The launch of evercan is a key component in the Novelis plan to “dramatically increase” the recycled content of its products across its global operations to 80% by 2020.

While already the world’s largest recycler of aluminium, Novelis has also announced capital investments of nearly $500 million over the last two years that it says will double its global recycling capacity to 2.1 million tonnes by 2015.

SCS Global Services managing director Stowe Hartridge-Beam says: “We are pleased to have independently certified the exceptionally high levels of recycled content in Novelis’ aluminium can sheet, which represents a new benchmark of performance in an industry that has been long known for its recycling efforts.”