AluPure – Environmentally friendly and low-emission aluminium billets
09/06/2022
More and more of our customers are monitoring the emissions and environmental impact of their production. Due to a new, environmentally conscious way of thinking, interest in recycled aluminium has also increased. At Mäkelä Alu, we have invested in monitoring and reducing emissions for years. As one of our responsible solutions, we offer our customers AluPure aluminium billets produced in our own foundry, which consist of 100% recycled aluminium.
Billets made in our own foundry
Mäkelä Alu has been producing recycled aluminium for a long time, as many of our customers look for the lowest possible primary percentage, or want to use our recycled aluminium, AluPure in their aluminium profiles.
Selecting aluminium profiles made from recycled aluminium billets allows you to reduce the carbon footprint of the final product. For example, our customer Solar Finland has long used responsibly manufactured aluminium profiles in its production.
Low emissions, high impact
The emissions of AluPure are very low, only 2.01 tn CO2e/t. The carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) describes the climate impact of human-produced greenhouse gases. The measurement unit used (tn CO2e/t) illustrates how many carbon dioxide equivalent tonnes are produced when a thousand kilogrammes of product are manufactured. By comparison, the average emissions of primary aluminium produced in Europe are 6.7 tn CO2e/t. The raw material emission calculation is based on standard EN ISO 14044:2006, and sections A1–A3 have been taken into account in the calculation.
“The figures show that the choice of aluminium profile manufacturer can have a great impact on the climate and the environment. By choosing AluPure, you are making a choice for the environment and the climate,” says Päivi Venesoja, Mäkelä Alu’s EHSQ Manager.
You can find more information about our carbon handprint and recycled aluminium in our other recently published article.
Where does Mäkelä Alu’s recycled aluminium come from?
Process and quality scrap generated in our production is melted for reuse in our own foundry. In addition to our own production scrap, we also collect scrap aluminium from our downstream companies and customers.
“In our foundry, scrap aluminium is melted into billets that can be used as a raw material in profile production. In the melting process, we ensure that the specification of the mixture to be melted is met by using a proper combination of alloying elements,” says Päivi Venesoja.
EDP and the Nordic Swan Ecolabel
We have just completed an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for profiles made from both recycled AluPure and primary aluminium.
“An Environmental Product Declaration is a standardised and reliable way to present a life-cycle analysis of a product or service. An EPD is an independently verified and certified document that provides clear and comparable information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life-cycle,” says Päivi Venesoja.
AluPure also bears the Nordic Swan Ecolabel. Ympäristömerkintä Suomi Oy has approved the use of window profiles made from Mäkelä Alu’s recycled aluminium in Nordic Swan Ecolabelled buildings in accordance with the building requirement O25 (“Windows and outer doors of non-renewable materials”).
The label is an official ecolabel used in the Nordic countries, which means that the product or service meets the environmental criteria set for the label.
If you want to know more about AluPure, please contact our sales team!
You can read more about our environmental efforts on our Resbonsibility sites.
