“Today, approximately 75% of all the aluminium ever produced is still in productive use, having been through countless loops of its lifecycle.”

Ken Martchek, IAI Energy and Environment Committee Chairman

Ensuring that the material loop is closed is an essential element in the sustainability of transport aluminium. The value of aluminium, a function of the material’s unique properties and the energy required to produce primary metal, means that 90% of aluminium in automotives is collected and recycled at the end of its useful life.

ISO 14044 offers guidelines how to consider recycling in the life cycle of products. In the case of aluminium architectural products, which are not lost or consumed during the lifetime of a building, but only used and which are recycled an indefinite number of times (with some losses); there is no longer a “grave” or landfilling stage. They clearly fulfil the idea of a “cradle-to-cradle” approach.