Focus on Recycling
March 2018

Most materials are claiming to be ‘fully recyclable’ today, but few, if any, come close to the 100% recyclability mark than metals. Next to steel, aluminium is the most abundant recycled metal, and, the most valuable. It has been recycled for many years, in fact 75% of all aluminium ever produced since its first commercial production in 1880 is still ‘in-use’ today. A very modern metal, in terms of age, and one that has helped us achieve advances in a wide range of technologies over the last century.

Alutrade is one of the UK’s largest recyclers of aluminium. The company currently works with many of the UK’s top systems companies and fabricators, offering good market prices for their waste profile with a high-tech approach to the recycling of this valuable material.

In construction, the vast majority of our commercial buildings contain aluminium framed glazing and structures made from aluminium. Always used as an alloy, which means it is mixed with other elements to change is characteristics to suit the application, the material can simply be melted and sold for production into a wide range of products, but by mixing the alloys, it is difficult to use the material again in its specific alloy grade.

Alutrade first identify the exact alloy that is being recycled by using sophisticated X-ray equipment and then employing state-of-the-art equipment which effectively strips all thermal breaks and other materials from the profile. What is left is the prime material, the alloy in its original state which can go back into the same product it came from without any loss of characteristics and vitally at a 100% recyclability rate. This is known as ‘closed-loop’ recycling and as a result the recycled material has a higher value, consequently, Alutrade can generally offer higher prices for any aluminium requiring recycling.

Alutrade are based in the midlands and cover the whole of the UK supplying skips for the recycling of aluminium profile waste, both new profile and profile from building decommissioning or refurbishment.

www.alutrade.co.uk