Aluminum maker Alcoa dedicates expansion of Tenn. recycling operation for aluminum drink cans

Alcoa dedicates can recycling expansion in Tenn.

ALCOA, Tenn. — The United States trails Brazil, Germany, Russia and some other countries in its rate of recycling aluminum beverage cans and Alcoa Inc.’s chief executive said Friday that needs to change.

The Pittsburgh-based company dedicated an expansion of its aluminum can recycling operation in east Tennessee, a $24 million investment that a spokesman said makes it the largest such operation under one roof.

Alcoa President and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said the expansion will help support a goal of boosting the current 54 percent rate of recycling beverage cans in the United States to 75 percent by 2015.

The rate of recycled beverage cans in Russia is currently 75 percent, 91 percent in Germany and 95 percent in Brazil, according to Alcoa.

A company statement said the 75 percent recycling rate can be achieve in the United States if each person recycles one more can each week.

“Actually it is not very difficult to do,” Kleinfeld told more than 100 people at the dedication, noting a used container can be recycled and back on a store shelf within 60 days.

Kleinfeld said Alcoa is a partner in a new independent company, Evermore Recycling LLC, that will acquire used aluminum cans.

Kleinfeld also spoke of an initiative to set up “about 50,000 recyling bins” to boost reuse of aluminum, which will help reduce carbon emissions.

The new equipment at the Alcoa complex in the Smoky Mountain foothills of Tennessee includes a crusher and delacquering furnace.

Alcoa Global Rolled Products President Helmut Wieser said at the dedication that prospects for the industry “around the world are bright.”

Tennessee’s chief business recruiter, Matt Kisber, said Alcoa began operations in Tennessee almost a century ago where it has long been a major economic presence.

(This version CORRECTS title of Evermore Recycling LLC, an independent company.)