Symposium on Aluminium Foil in Packaging by Aluminium Federation

Instead, organiser RX and the German Aluminium Association (Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie, GDA), together with the CRU Group, are planning a two-day hybrid congress format. But due to the after-effects of the Corona pandemic, the ALUMINIUM trade fair in Düsseldorf cannot take place as planned from 28 to 30 September 2021. It should have been the long-awaited restart event for the aluminium industry.

ALUMINIUM trade fair has been replaced with a congress: The ALUMINIUM Business Summit which will take place in Düsseldorf from 28 to 29 September. This has an additional benefit that the bottom ash, now free of non-ferrous metals, are more stable and can then be reused in construction projects such as roads.In the context of the current situation and with the current travel restrictions impacting a number of exhibitors, sponsors and speakers, organiser RX (Reed Exhibitions) have made the difficult but appropriate decision to postpone ALUMINIUM 2021 to next year. These small pieces of aluminium are readily separated from the bottom ashes using eddy current sorting technology. However, recent studies show that a significant proportion of even the thin gauge aluminium foil in packaging is not oxidised, but melts and is increasingly collected from the bottom ashes of the incinerator, sorted and returned to the “aluminium pool” to be reused. During the incineration process a part of the aluminium in the packaging, in particular the thin and laminated foil fraction, is oxidised, releasing energy which is recovered and converted to heat and electricity. In the situations where aluminium foil and alufoil packaging are not collected separately for recycling, they are collected together with the rest of the household waste which generally enters an energy recovery process when it is safely incinerated. The aluminium in packaging is fully recyclable and can, in principle, be used for the production of new packaging applications or other valuable aluminium products such as castings for the automotive industry or for building products.

For aluminium in packaging, national rates across Europe vary from 30% to more than 80%. The amount of aluminium in packaging recycled greatly depends on the efficiency of the national packaging collection schemes in each European country. For aluminium in packaging the estimated average recycling rate is about 55% (according to the new calculation method, applicable for 2020 onwards). Aluminium foil and aluminium foil in packaging are increasingly recycled in Europe.

Symposium on Aluminium Foil in Packaging by Aluminium Federation