Environmental evaluation of recycling technology and the impact of the transport of Aluminum cables

Abstract

The goal of this study is to document the environmental impact of a recycling aluminum process, using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, in accordance with the standards of International Organization for Standardization (ISO 14040/44). Today, the life cycle impact of European generic primary and secondary aluminum are well defined through the work of the European Aluminum Association (EAA). However specific recycling processes are not available in literature. In this study, the environmental assessment of cable recycling processing is examined. The data come from a recycling plant (MTB Recycling) in France. The specific and innovative process was developed by MTB Recycling engineers and is sold as a process solution in different countries. The specificity of MTB process relies on the absence of fusion for metal refining. Nevertheless, it reaches standard aluminum purity up to 99.6%. This performance is obtained using only mechanical separation and optical sorting processes on shredder cables. Environmental impact assessment is done using ILCD Handbook recommendations. On the one hand, the study demonstrates huge environmental benefits for aluminum recycled in comparison with primary aluminum. On the other hand, the results show the harmful environmental influence of the heat refining by comparison with cold recycling process.