Determination of the recycled content

In addition to the carbon footprint of products, recycled content (RC) is another indicator that can be used to measure advances in the circular economy. Recycled content basically describes the proportion of recycled material contained in a product or material.

International norms and industry standards are crucial for ensuring that the recycled content is presented in a transparent and comprehensible manner. They create a consistent framework for definitions, calculation methods, and the communication of this environmental indicator. ISO norm 14021 “Environmental labels and declarations” is the relevant international standard for environmental product information and plays a central role in defining relevant terms such as “pre-consumer materials” and “post-consumer materials.”

Post-consumer material: Material generated by households or by commercial, industrial and institutional facilities in their role as end-users of the product which can no longer be used for its intended purpose.

Pre-consumer material: Material diverted from the waste stream during a manufacturing process and is recycled outside of that same production process.

Distinct from the two definitions mentioned above is the category “material from the same process.” This refers to material flows that arise within the defined production process and are also returned to the same material cycle.In practice, however, it has been shown that these shares can be determined differently depending on the material and calculation method used, which significantly limits their comparability. While the definition of post-consumer recycled material is generally accepted, there are different interpretations of pre-consumer material, as the definition “within the same process” can include different material flows depending on the system boundary selected. A consistent fundamental understanding, disclosure of system boundaries, and comprehensible calculation bases are therefore essential in order to build trust in performance indicators and ensure fair comparability across all materials.

Determination of the recycled content at AMAG

The AMAG approach aims to define internal processes for transparency and traceability of recycled content while promoting the key pillars of the circular economy and closed recycling loops.

System boundaries

Figure 1 shows a simplified illustration of the internal value chain and defines the processes of the casthouse, rolling mills and manufacuring. This example clearly demonstrates that, depending on the selected system boundary, production waste can occur both inside and outside this boundary. Each of the three illustrated process areas meets the requirements according to the definitions in ISO 14021. The differently illustrated system boundaries lead to differing results when calculating the recycled content, as different material flows are included in the key figure depending on the boundary.In accordance with its internal definition, AMAG has clearly defined the recycled content of AMAG products as the system boundary of the casthouse, as this corresponds to the material-based approach. This means that all material flows within the casthouse, such as scrap from head and tail cuttings from slabs, are classified as “materials in the same process,” whereas scrap from the rolling mill or further production is counted as pre-consumer scrap.

Calculation methodology

Based on the defined system boundary, the following calculation methodology applies to AMAG rolled products (plates, sheets and coils):Recycled Content AMAG-Products =

a: Primary aluminium including alloy metalsb: External scrapc: Pre-consumer scrap from manufacturing processesd: Scrap from the rolling mill processe: Scrap from the casthouse process(including remelting secondary ingots from dross)

Calculation approach

In addition to direct allocation of scrap at batch level, in practice the calculation is usually based on a rolling average model (calculation of the percentage of recycled materials over a certain period). Recycled content for AMAG products, for example, is communicated as an average over the last production year or, in the case of a specific agreement, is guaranteed for the defined period.

Industry comparison

In order to enable a transparent and comparable evaluation of different materials, it is crucial that the same system boundaries apply to different metallic materials.

In contrast to the aluminium industry, the World Steel Association, which is the world's largest industry association for the steel industry, has already agreed globally on the system boundary, which is now groundbreaking for metallic materials.

According to this definition, scrap from a downstream steelworks process after BOF (Basic Oxygen Furnance) or EAF (electric arc furnace) that is put back into the steel production process (BOF or EAF) is classified as “pre-consumer scrap” (e.g. scrap from the rolling mill process). This demonstrates a clear commitment to the material-based approach, which is consistent with AMAG's understanding.