Recycling: the costs of energy use in industry have risen and primary aluminum production pyramiding
Pindamonhangaba – Brazil, the largest collector of world aluminum cans, surpassed in 2014 its own record in recycling of this type of material, with 98.4% reuse in part by high energy prices, said on Monday industry sources.

According to the Brazilian Aluminum Association (Abal), the numbers are positive for the environment also reflect the fragile state of the economy that, since last year, suffers from a painful cooling process, the GDP recession (Gross Domestic Product ) and inflation that doubles the target set.

With this scenario, the costs of energy use in industry have risen and primary aluminum production pyramiding, so that the re-use of material from recycled, gained more strength, with 98.4%, 1.3% more than in 2013, when he set a record.

Between March 2014 and the same month of 2015, energy prices in Brazil increased by 60% according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), after years of control by the government.

“The aluminum migrates to where energy is cheaper and unfortunately experienced a deindustrialization of primary aluminum,” he told Efe the coordinator of the Recycling Market Committee Abal, Mario Fernández.

According to Fernández, “the industries that insist on making the production of primary aluminum are those that produce with your own energy, because without it they could not do it.”

The production of secondary aluminum from recycled, has a 95% lower power consumption compared to the primary process, the world production migrated to countries like Russia and China, noted Fernandez.

“Unfortunately, the secondary aluminum is limited. Today we are at 500 thousand tons per year and there is no more harvest this regardless junkyard, something we already do, “he said.

According to Abal, Brazil consumes annually 1.4 million tonnes of aluminum, of which 33% are intended for packaging such as beverage cans and other products.

For the coming years, he said Fernández, the country can live a new “boom” in consumption of the mineral for its application in the vehicle industry as an alternative to reduce the weight of cars and allow more savings in fuel consumption.

“The first boom of aluminum in Brazil was to the packaging and the second boom is in motor vehicles by law have to reduce carbon emissions and this can only be done by replacing the fuel or by reducing weight the use of aluminum, “he said.

Brazil has an average of 30 kilograms of aluminum per car compared to 150 kilograms applied by the automobile industry in the United States.

“The possibility of expansion that is in Brazil is huge,” said Fernandez, who warned that with recycling levels as high requires more consumption of cans to increase the supply of reuse.

Between 2013 and 2014, according to the employer, sales of aluminum cans in Brazil increased by 11.1% compared to an increase of 12.5% recycling in the same period, leaving the South American country to ahead of Japan, the United States and Europe.

The culture of recycling in Brazil follows the fact that poor communities organized in cooperatives or informally, have in collecting cans the only source of income for their families.

Ángela Gonzaga, president of recycling cooperative Moreira Cease district of Pindamonhangaba -interior of São Paulo-, told Efe that the population is not aware for the separation of materials, arriving dirty or mixed with others, such as paper.

“I think if we had a little more support to raise awareness, it would be much better our work, would yield much more,” opined Gonzaga, which further said that a fifth of the members of his cooperative has only the function of separating materials wasting time and efficiency in the process.

With proper separation from the people, recycling would increase twice, considered the cooperative.
Authorship: http://exame.abril.com.br/economia/noticias/brasil-supera-proprio-recorde-em-reciclagem-de-aluminio