Resource Recycling Magazine: Novelis says "Nevermore," Alcoa keeps Evermore

## Novelis says "Nevermore," Alcoa keeps Evermore

_By Dylan de Thomas, Resource Recycling_

Aluminum giants Novelis and Alcoa will no longer partner on the Evermore Recycling joint UBC procurement operation as of August 31.

Novelis [announced in May][1] it intended to leave the joint operation -- the company owns a 55.8 percent stake in Evermore and Alcoa 44.2 percent -- and this week Novelis [announced][2] that it will procure its own used beverage containers (UBCs) via its own organization, beginning at the end of August. Financial terms of the dissolving of the joint agreement were not disclosed.

The other half of the operation, Alcoa, for its part, [said][3] that it intended to keep Evermore going. "When the opportunity first presented itself, we immediately said we wanted Evermore," said Andrey Donets, president of Alcoa Global Packaging in a press release announcing the move. "We are confident the strong relationships we have in the scrap market will grow even stronger as we take over full control of the company."

When asked what led into the decision to leave Evermore, Charles Belbin, director of corporate communications for Novelis, told _Resource Recycling_, "The most important factor was the internal strategic decision to focus more on the recycled content of our products -- to raise the recycled content to 80 percent by 2020, from a base of 33 percent. This means we are making many decisions around our scrap procurement and recycling operations worldwide."

With Evermore, Belbin said, "We were bound by the terms of the joint venture, and we wanted to have complete control and flexibility with our sourcing decisions.

"We're making investments around the world to increase recycling capacity and, to meet that 80 percent goal, it makes sense to vertically integrate our scrap procurement with our recycling operations, in-house." According to Belbin, Novelis recycled the equivalent of 40 billion cans in 2012, with about half that amount coming from North America and, thus, from Evermore brokering efforts. The other half was from Novelis procurement efforts from the rest of the globe.

When asked what the company would be doing to boost the volumes of aluminum into the recycling stream, Belbin noted that it was a little bit early, and offered no specific strategies other than that Novelis would be striving to "purchase as many of UBCs as we can. Novelis was, is and will be the largest recycler of UBCs in North America and the world. Recycling is core to our strategy as a company."

Alcoa will take over full ownership and operation of Evermore Recycling on August 31, when it will become part of Alcoa's Global Packaging group and it will continue to be based in Nashville, Tennessee.

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[1]: http://resource-recycling.com/node/2781
[2]: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/novelis-establishes-new-buying-organization-for-north-americas-largest-used-beverage-can-recycling-system-162611196.html
[3]: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/alcoa-takes-full-ownership-of-evermore-recycling-the-world-leader-in-beverage-can-recycling-2012-07-16
[4]: http://www.resource-recycling.com/images/e-newsletterimages/C2R306-2012-Web-Banner-Refresh-600x120.jpg (Call2Recycle Banner)
[5]: http://www.call2recycle.org/
[6]: http://www.resource-recycling.com/images/e-newsletterimages/RRe-news071912.html

URL: http://resource-recycling.com/node/2933