Diageo, a British beverage company, plans to fund and establish the British Aluminium Consortium for Advanced Alloys (BACALL), a collective of industry experts who will create a circular economy for aluminum in the U.K.
“We are excited to be a part of a project that will ultimately change the production of aluminum in the U.K.,” said Ewan Andrew, global supply chain and procurement and chief sustainability officer at Diageo. “We are now seeking to work in partnership with business and government to not only reduce aluminum’s carbon footprint, but also to bring this part of the aluminum supply chain back to the U.K.”
Currently, to recycle and remake cans, the U.K. is reliant on an energy-intensive, unsustainable supply chain that is based on exporting and importing of aluminum. The consortium will build a plant to recycle scrap aluminum and produced rolled aluminum sheet in a closed loop. The plant will produce hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aluminium sheet in the U.K. — more than enough for over 400 million cans of Guinness and pre-mixed Gordon’s and tonic.
The new plant will establish a new circular-economy supply chain for aluminum, keeping the recycling of aluminum in the U.K., while also contributing to Diageo’s 10-year sustainability action plan. The plant will lower the carbon emissions associated with the production of aluminum sheet, by limiting the need to export and import aluminum and cutting down on dependency on primary aluminum as a raw material. Since the plant will use 5% less energy in the production of its aluminum sheet versus traditional prime production methods, the plant will contribute to reducing Diageo’s Scope 3 carbon emissions.
In addition, it will enable Diageo to produce Guinness cans made with 100% recycled material.
“Aluminum is one of the most recyclable materials on the planet — yet the 15 billion plus cans made in the U.K. rely on an energy-intensive supply chain, that requires aluminum to be brought in and out of the country,” noted David Sneddon, non-executive director of BACALL Aluminium Ltd. “By sourcing, recycling, manufacturing and supplying aluminum flat rolled sheet in the UK, we can localize and close the supply chain, providing substantial reductions in carbon emissions. This will help create a more sustainable aluminum industry and will secure the future capacity of ultra-low carbon alloys.”
BACALL is currently at the design, engineering, and site selection stage of the process for building the new recycling plant.
Geoff Scamans, professor of Metallurgy at Brunel University, commented, “Aluminum has the potential to be zero carbon, but the entire supply chain needs to see a dramatic reduction in emissions. The UK currently exports much of its aluminum scrap, yet at the same time, imports nearly all aluminum sheet. By changing this, we should see a significant carbon footprint reduction. I applaud Diageo and BACALL for beginning this process.”