Measuring our industry’s environmental impact

European Aluminium promotes life cycle thinking and has been monitoring the industry’s environmental performance for more than 20 years. Progress is monitored through regular data collection and public reporting. In 2018, European Aluminium issued its third Environmental Profile Report, followed by a dedicated report for the aluminium refining industry in 2021. The next edition is expected in 2023.

Environmental Profile Report 2018

Our Environmental Profile Report 2018 covers the environmental impact of the aluminium value chain in Europe, from primary and recycling to semi-fabrication – rolling, foil and extrusion. In addition to providing accurate and reliable data on aluminium industry’s environmental performance in Europe, it also includes Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets for the main process steps essential for calculating the environmental impact of products using aluminium.

Our report has been peer-reviewed by two independent life cycle assessment experts.

Key takeaways

• The carbon intensity of primary aluminium production in Europe decreased by 21% versus 2010 and by 55% versus 1990.
• The carbon intensity of the primary aluminium production in Europe is approximately 6.8kg of CO₂ per kg of aluminium produced compared to a global average of 16.1 kg CO₂ per kg of aluminium and a Chinese average of 20kg CO₂ per kg.
• There has been a strong decrease in the carbon intensity of semi-fabrication processes in Europe: the carbon intensity for the aluminium rolling mill process has decreased by 25% since 2010. The carbon intensity for the extrusion process decreased by 11%.
• The carbon intensity of process scrap recycling (remelting) in Europe has decreased by 9% since 2010.

To request the full version of the report, please register here.

Environmental Profile Report for the Aluminium Refining Industry (2021)

To complement our Environmental Profile Report published in 2018, we conducted a dedicated study in 2021 on the environmental performance of aluminium refining processes used to produce cast alloy aluminium ingots from aluminium scrap.

Key takeaways

• The carbon intensity of the refining process decreased by 14% between 2010 and 2018.
• When including the benefits related to the recovery of the aluminium oxide from the salt slag recycling process, the environmental impacts of the refining process can be further decreased by 11%.
• The aluminium refining process allows for the recovery and generation of three value-added products, including recycled aluminum, fluxing salt and aluminium oxide from what is generally considered waste. These raw materials recovered from the refining process are used by various industries, including the aluminium, ceramic, and cement industries, as well as refractories.

To request the full version of the report, please register here.