Recycled Aluminum
The ultimate recycled material, the Aluminum Association reports:
- Annual U.S. aluminum can consumption is 100 billion units, the equivalent of one per day for each citizen.
- It requires only 5% of the energy to recycle aluminum as it does to smelt new aluminum.
- Because of recycling, more than two-thirds of the aluminum ever smelted is still in use.
- Upon demolition, 90% of the aluminum in buildings is recycled.
- One case of un-recycled aluminum cans wastes the amount of energy in a gallon of gas.
- On average, aluminum cans are back in use 60 days after recycling.
- The aluminum industry has cut carbon emissions by 53% in the last 15 years.
Wausau’s extruder-partners – Patrick Metals, Hydro Aluminum and Gordon Aluminum – provide high-quality, secondary billet upon request.
This material is free of contaminants and averages more than 80% post-industrial, recycled content.
To positively identify extrusions from primary and secondary billet, Wausau maintains separate inventory records and separate locations.
Recycled content requirements must be discussed with Wausau prior to placing orders for project-specific material.
We have no minimum project size limits for the use of recycled aluminum as active extrusion die profiles are kept in stock for both primary and secondary billet.
There is no impact on cost or lead times for either primary or secondary billet.
Warranty provisions for window assemblies, finishing, durability and structural integrity are unaffected by the use of secondary billet that is free of contaminants and meets the Aluminum Association’s alloy content limits.
Recycled aluminum used by Wausau’s Midwestern extruder-partners is cast into secondary extrusion billet in several locations. Most of these cast houses are within 500 miles of Wausau, Wisconsin. If your project’s location also is within 500 miles of Wausau, framing fabricated from the recycled aluminum may contribute to LEED-NC Materials and Resources credits for Regional Materials.
Alcoa 3003 alloy rolled aluminum sheet product used for Wausau’s organically finished trim and panels has a combined calculated recycled content of more than 25%.
Alcoa 5005 alloy rolled aluminum sheet product used for our anodized trim and panels has a combined calculated recycled content of approximately 8%.