European aluminum recycling industry challenges

In 2007, the EU collected and processed more than 4 million tons of new and old waste. These good reproduction processing into the material, approximately 2.77 million tons of cast aluminum alloy for the EU-27, as well as 17,000 tons of waste is used to produce an aluminum wrought alloy. To date, more than half of the manufacturing aluminum in the EU comes from recycled raw materials.

From an ecological point of view, the importance of aluminum recycling is also quite large. As a material, aluminum is favored by designers because of its many excellent characteristics. The low specific gravity and high strength of aluminum metal make it the material of choice for all lightweight engineering. Especially in transportation, aluminum is the most widely used, such as in cars, commercial vehicles, trains and airplanes. The lower specific gravity of the metal aluminum reduces the energy consumption of the car while driving, and also meets the requirements of modern engineering. In addition, recycled aluminum saves energy consumption of electrolytic aluminum production to a certain extent. According to statistics, the production of recycled aluminum can save energy by 95% compared to the production of primary aluminum.

In addition to minimal mass loss and low energy requirements, aluminum also plays a special role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Given the undisputed advantages of aluminum recycling, the aluminum industry has encouraged a focus on aluminum metal recycling. Of course, new challenges will continue to emerge in the actual work process, but they must be overcome.

    I. Restrictions on REACH regulations

The so-called REACH Regulation is the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction System for Chemicals, which was pre-registered and started by the European Union on June 1, 2008. The regulation (No. 1907/2006, issued in December 2006) is the most ambitious regulation enacted by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.

The REACH regulation, which came into effect in June 2007, is known as the “Green Code”. The expansion of the EU Chemicals Act from a large number of chemical substances to all products containing chemical components poses a major challenge to the recycled aluminum industry. The reason is very simple. If the aluminum scrap is regarded as useless waste, it can be exempted from the requirements of the REACH regulation; but in that case, is the raw material of the cast alloy derived from aluminum scrap? If the chemical composition of the alloy is already registered, such alloy products are not required to be registered. Therefore, collect enough information to determine if there is no need to register. The entire pre-registration activity must be carried out through the REACH Chemical Inspection Agency. Among these pre-registered goods, many substances are likely to be carefully checked to show if there is no obligation to register. However, due to the large uncertainty in the application of REACH, many companies engaged in aluminum recycling want to show that aluminum scrap is safe, at least in the pre-registration phase.

It is reported that the pre-registration phase of the REACH regulation was implemented from June to December 2008. At this stage, all brand owners, manufacturers and importers who export to EU products must declare the chemical components contained in the product. After December 2008, any product that contains a chemical substance that has not been pre-registered must undergo a registration process of one to two years to prove the chemical composition of the product before it can be exported to the EU.

    Second, the challenges of waste classification regulations

Recycling aluminum also requires a waste policy. In addition to the purity and value of aluminum, from a legal point of view, aluminum scrap is still a waste and is still subject to the EU Waste Catalogue Guidelines (75/442/EEC).

In the past, there were obvious regulations that distinguished economically valuable materials from pure waste, which was not pure waste. The metal trading and recycling industries are trying to find a special legal status for “metal scrap” outside the waste directive, at least for clean metal scrap without organic impurities, but failed because the European Commission opposed the matter.

The current situation is different. In the past, the metal trade and recycling industry has put the legal status of obtaining metal scrap on the agenda, and adjusted operational actions. There is often a large capital investment in waste disposal. The European Commission has suddenly shown that “this issue can be discussed. "Attitude. As indicated in a strategy document adopted in 2006, in the revised provisions of the Waste Directive, it is intended to classify waste into law so that the previously defined “metal scrap” is no longer considered a real waste, but Rewritten as "product." This clause is beneficial to the aluminum recycling industry.

The definition of “metal scrap” as waste is not subject to REACH regulations. On the contrary, when it is a product, it is subject to REACH regulations and must be registered. Registration will inevitably result in considerable expenses. Therefore, even those who are in favor of converting “metal waste” into “products” point out that this conversion makes sense if it is not subject to REACH regulations. Whether this can be done is still an open question.

The distinction between metal scrap and waste is also meaningful when exporting waste to developing or industrialized countries. At present, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe No. 1013/2006 (issued on June 14, 2006) have introduced some protective regulations on waste exports. If these countries fail to provide suitable waste disposal methods, they should prevent the export of waste to these countries. .

If the European Commission refuses to introduce methods and apparatus to ensure the safety of recycled raw materials, Europe may once again become the target of metal scrap buyers in Asian countries such as China, and environmental pollution concerns will become more and more serious.

    Third, the challenge of raw material policy

However, it is still doubtful whether the distinction between metal scrap and waste is a suitable raw material policy. Although many facts prove that aluminum recycling is reasonable, this view is still rarely supported. The significance of recycling in environmental protection has been appreciated, but its economic performance has been almost ignored. However, recycling aluminum does help greatly ensure the supply of raw materials. In the European aluminum industry, recycled aluminum is the only direct source of raw materials. As mentioned earlier, there are more than 4 million tons of new and old aluminum waste every year. But at present, the continued retention of this amount of scrap aluminum in Europe is likely to be threatened. It is clear that between 2003 and 2005, about 11,000 tons of waste was exported to China and India.

Since then, the Ministry of Nonferrous Metals of the German Metallurgical Association has proposed that the issue of adequate supply of metal raw materials has become a political issue. Many recommendations suggest that appropriate measures should be taken to ensure the supply of raw materials in Europe. The question currently being discussed by the German Industry Alliance is whether the raw material fund can be supported by the state's financial support and national resources. The national resources include the mining enterprises owned by the state. Even the European Commission is considering these issues, and the EU Raw Materials Strategy Report will be announced in the coming months.

So far, the preliminary plan has been made public. There is no indication that the EU's metallurgical recycled feedstock capacity continues to increase, and there is currently no list of waste equipment that is banned from exporting. The European Commission is implementing a free trade policy for commodities, but from the point of view of aluminum recycling and recycling industry, at least there is no idea to ensure the vitality of the EU in international competition. The aluminum recycling industry has long been concerned about this issue because it is not a question about industry protection barriers.

The establishment of a raw material policy is a political task for the EU, but it has not yet been completely completed. At present, there is no way to prevent large quantities of metal scrap from being purchased, such as Chinese purchases, which may threaten the European recycling industry.

exist. The Recycling Aluminum Industry Association and its European Chapter, the European Association of Fine Metals and Metallurgy, have discovered this problem, but this issue is not a property of industrial barrier protection. However, there is an urgent need to solve the problem of excessive sales of waste machinery or equipment that will be knocked open and smashed into recycled raw materials. This is like stock trading, including the London Metal Exchange (LEM), which can suspend trading for a short period of time if the stock price or metal offer deviates significantly from a normal trading value. European metal scrap exports should also have such protection mechanisms.

    Fourth, aluminum recycling rate continues to increase, statistical work is difficult to put in place

Although the operation of aluminum scrap can be profitable, the collection, storage and smelting of aluminum scrap has not attracted people's attention. The collection rate of waste collected from used cars or buildings is currently around 95%, and the collection rate in other fields is also high; even in the packaging industry, the recycling rate is over 70%. From the perspective of Europe as a whole, this is A very good result.

However, despite this, statistical investigations still show that aluminum material flow is seriously lost. Of course, there needs to be clarification here, not all statistics can really reflect the actual situation. For example, to date, there is almost no reliable data on the amount of aluminum scrap collected from powdered ash provided by waste incineration plants, which will be of particular concern. It should also be clarified that scrap aluminum in old homes has not been counted so far. In fact, many old aluminum are likely to "latent" at home or in the office. Currently, some projects at the national and international levels are improving waste flow statistics and developing solutions for collecting and handling key waste types and proposing further optimization measures.

   5. The low emission of CO _{2 in the} aluminum recycling industry has not yet been recognized.

The political debate on global warming is dominated by global issues. The excessive carbon dioxide emissions are increasingly recognized as one of the most important reasons for climate change. Europe is a pioneer in proposing measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, the European Commission is now going to put aluminum production in a system that limits emissions, and not only aluminum companies, but also other non-ferrous metal producers and metal foundry companies, as long as the thermal power exceeds 20 MW, it will be listed. Inside.

However, from the point of view of the aluminum recycling industry, it is actually more than one. A prominent feature of recycled aluminum is that its energy consumption is only 5% of primary electrolytic aluminum. Therefore, the carbon dioxide emissions from recycled aluminum are very low.

According to the recommendations of the European Commission, energy-intensive companies participating in international competition can obtain emission permits free of charge. Whether or not the aluminum recycling industry can be one of them remains to be seen. What is needed now is some persuasive lobbying.