Recycling is part of the natural lifecycle of Aluminium. Because the metal can be simply remelted using only around 5% of the energy used in primary production. And because it can be recycled time and again without loss of quality Aluminium retains a high scrap value which drives high recycling rates in each end user sector.

Recycling - rather than producing aluminium from bauxite - makes sound economic sense for the industry: capital costs are lower, recycling plants are smaller and more flexible, and the plants can be located closer both to sources of feedstock scraps, and markets for the recycled metal.

The recycling rate does not include the recycling of production scraps (such as the metal left when round foil containers are stamped from the foil reel). Quantities available, together with aluminium's high value, mean that this metal will nearly always be returned for recycling.