Novelis opened the Ulsan Aluminum Recycling Center at Ulsan Aluminum, which is Asia’s largest aluminum beverage can recycling facility, located in Yeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea. Fully funded by Novelis, the new center is equipped to process a wide range of post-consumer scrap — including aluminum from cans, automotive, and industrial sources — enhancing the company’s overall recycling capabilities in the region.
“The Ulsan Aluminum Recycling Center is a strategic investment aimed at meeting growing customer demand for sustainable, low-carbon aluminum across beverage packaging, automotive, and specialty product sectors,” said Sachin Satpute, president of Novelis Asia. “We will continue to expand the use of recycled aluminum inputs to reduce our carbon footprint as well as those of our customers and our industry, accelerating the transition to a circular economy.”
Ulsan Aluminum is the aluminum rolling and recycling joint venture owned by Novelis and Kobe Steel. Novelis has invested $65 million in the joint venture to build the new recycling center, which has a domestic recycling capacity of approximately 470,000 tons per year. This enables an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of low-carbon aluminum sheet ingot.
Through this facility, Novelis expects to reduce carbon emissions by 420,000 tons annually. This reduction is equivalent to the annual CO₂ absorption of approximately 19 million trees (based on an average of 22 kg per tree, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture). Recycling aluminum can save 95% of energy used and 95% of greenhouse gases emitted when producing aluminum from bauxite. In addition, aluminum is a fully circular material as it is infinitely recyclable without any loss in quality.
The completion of the Ulsan Aluminum Recycling Center contributes to the Novelis 3×30 sustainability vision. The vision involves three global objectives by 2030, which includes increasing the company’s average recycled content to 75%, achieving less than 3 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of flat rolled product (FRP) shipped, and continuing first-mover investments to lead the industry to circularity.