Novelis celebrates 10 years of innovation at the Nachterstedt Aluminum Recycling Center

In 2011, Novelis decided to focus the company's business model on recycling, leading to an increase in recycling capacity and capability investments. These investments include the construction of one of the world's largest aluminum recycling centres, the Nachterstedt Aluminium Recycling Center (NARC), which now celebrates its 10th anniversary.

A transformative investment 

With a total investment of over €300 million, NARC was built as a state-of-the-art facility capable of recycling up to 400,000 tonnes of aluminum annually. With its central location within Europe, NARC provides high-recycled-content ingots to Novelis Europe's rolling plants for further processing into low-carbon, innovative aluminum solutions for many key players within the automotive, beverage packaging, and specialties industries.  

"At NARC, we can cast aluminum ingots for car body sides made from 86 percent scrap," says Emilio Braghi, executive vice president of Novelis Inc., and president of Novelis Europe. "Aluminum ingots for beverage can bodies with a recycling content close to 100 percent showcase our way of decarbonizing aluminum for consumer goods and our strong ambition towards a fully circular economy."

Driving sustainability and lower emissions 

Recycling aluminum reduces energy consumption by approximately 95 percent compared to primary aluminum production and reduces carbon intensity to a comparable level. In that respect, NARC is lowering carbon emissions by around 3.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, which not only reduces the plant's carbon footprint to an enormous extent, says the company, but also substantially helps to lower carbon emissions in the downstream aluminum value chain.

"We are proud to be able to meet the increasing market demand for high-recycled aluminum solutions, directly contributing to our customers' carbon reduction and sustainability goals," says Braghi.

Continued recycling leadership 

NARC is not just a facility — it's a symbol of Novelis' vision for a circular future. The site makes an important contribution to Novelis' ambitious sustainability goals of becoming the provider of lowest carbon emitting flat-rolled aluminum solutions with less than three tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per tonne of aluminum shipped by 2030 and to be carbon-neutral by 2050, or sooner.

Advanced sorting technology added at Nachterstedt Recycling plant in 2024 aims to further optimize the utilization of post-consumer aluminum scrap for high-quality aluminum products. The new technology is expected to avoid the use of around 8,500 tonnes of primary aluminum per year, resulting in a reduction of over 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The implementation of this state-of-the-art sorting technology at NARC is projected to reach completion by the end of 2024. 

Sven Schulze, Minister for economic affairs, tourism, agriculture, and forestry for Saxony-Anhalt, says, "Novelis sets standards to strengthen Germany and Saxony-Anhalt as a location for sustainable aluminum solutions and impressively demonstrates how the circular economy and economic success can go together. As an important employer, Novelis makes a decisive contribution to the economic strength of the region and develops innovative solutions that receive international recognition. Saxony-Anhalt is proud of companies like Novelis, whose commitment contributes to the positive development of our state."

Raising the bar for recycled content 

As NARC celebrates its 10th anniversary, Novelis looks forward to the future, continuing its leadership role in sustainable aluminum production and driving the industry towards a more sustainable, lower-carbon future. Since 2011, Novelis has increased the recycled content in its global product range from 33 percent to 63 percent, with a target to achieve 75 percent by the end of 2030. This milestone reinforces Novelis' commitment to constantly lower the carbon footprint of its product, aiming towards offering and achieving full circularity in aluminum production.