Circular Economy

A circular economy is an economic system of closed loops in which raw materials, components and products lose their value as little as possible, renewable energy sources are used and systems thinking is at the core. The European Commission adopted the new circular economy action plan in March 2020. It is one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth.

The new action plan announces initiatives along the entire life cycle of products. It targets how products are designed, promotes circular economy processes, encourages sustainable consumption, and aims to ensure that waste is prevented and the resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible.

Although it is hard to choose one clear definition for the circular economy, many of them focus on the so-called 3-R approach:

Reduce

Minimum use of raw materials

Reuse

Maximum reuse of products and components

Recycle

High-quality reuse of raw materials

SALEMA implements these strategies to further sustainable growth with low critical raw material alloy and recycled aluminium production for the automotive sector

SALEMA demonstrates the feasibility of closing the loop in high-quality aluminium alloys processing. Historically, using shredded end-of-life mix recycled aluminium scrap came with main drawbacks in the mechanical properties of the alloys. SALEMA will address this problem not only by studying and evaluating but by demonstrating the viability of the proposed new alloys at an industrial scale for one of the most regulated sectors, the automotive industry.

The key components of the SALEMA solutions:

Substantial contribution to the circular economy

by designing, producing and validating alloys with lower critical raw material content

Reducing the imports of raw materials into the EU.

Mitigating problems related to scarcity

and high-supply risk chain of critical raw materials.

Decreasing the exports of currently considered low-valuable materials

such as mixed post-consumer aluminium scrap.

Increasing the use of end-of-life mix recycled aluminium scrap

in novel aluminium alloys.

Reducing the environmental pressure of virgin aluminium and critical raw material extraction

and avoiding potential scrap accumulation.