German Aluminium Alliance discusses future goals

At the invitation of the German Aluminium Alliance, leading representatives from the industry, as well as associations and politicians, met on Friday 11 July 2025, at the North Rhine-Westphalia State Representation in Berlin to discuss the future of the aluminium circular economy in Germany.

The German Aluminium Alliance is an initiative founded by the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, together with the social partners IG Metall, IG BCE, and the German Aluminium Association (Aluminium Deutschland).

The goal is to make the aluminium industry in Germany competitive, climate-neutral and circular. In her keynote speech, North Rhine-Westphalia’s minister of Economic Affairs, Mona Neubaur, emphasised the need for an ambitious expansion of the circular economy: “North Rhine-Westphalia is the centre of the German aluminium industry and forms the backbone of important industrial value chains. Our goal is to further develop this location in a future-proof and climate-neutral manner. This requires an aluminium industry that combines economic strength with ecological responsibility. The consistent expansion of the circular economy in the aluminium sector is therefore a key lever that we are tackling jointly with the states, industry and trade unions.”

Overall, the aluminium industry in numerous federal states makes a decisive contribution to value creation, employment and the climate-neutral transformation. The German Aluminum Alliance therefore addressed the following appeals to politicians and called for appropriate political framework conditions: Aluminium scrap is a critical raw material and should be treated as such; aluminium recycling is already operating at a very high level. Aluminium beverage cans, for example, already achieve a recycling rate of over 99% in Germany. The metallurgical properties of the material, coupled with the aluminium industry’s constant investments in state-of-the-art processing, sorting, and furnace technologies, make this possible.

Philipp Schlüter (TRIMET Aluminium SE) emphasised: “It is crucial that sufficient aluminium scrap is available to operate our recycling plants. In the global competition for scrap, our industry is coming under increasing pressure. Politics and industry must now work together to ensure that valuable aluminium scrap remains in the European recycling cycle.”

Francesco Grioli, board member of the IGBCE, commented: “Technological innovations should be specifically promoted as the key to the circular economy.”

“The aluminium industry is a key sector for industrial transformation. A strong circular economy secures jobs, protects the climate, and strengthens competitiveness,” emphasided Volker Consoir, head of department on the IG Metall board. If raw material extraction from secondary materials is to be promoted, this must be done pragmatically – currently, projects are either not yet ready for funding or are already being implemented; then one can no longer wait for bureaucratic processes (Volker Backs, Speira GmbH).

Therefore, the German Aluminum Alliance believes that investments in innovative technologies and processes are essential for a sustainable aluminium industry. This includes, in particular, the further development of burner and furnace technologies, the potential use of green hydrogen, and electrification technologies. Politics, industry, and science are equally called upon to jointly drive these developments forward – supported by targeted funding programmes.

A sustainable circular economy begins with product design. The German Aluminum Alliance stated that in the future, greater attention should be paid to ease of disassembly and recycling. This requires appropriate incentives, standards, and funding measures, especially to avoid complex composite materials that complicate recycling. The aluminium circular economy offers significant economic and ecological opportunities. In addition to reducing the carbon footprint, targeted measures can conserve resources and reduce dependencies.

The discussion on 11 July made it clear that the path to a sustainable circular economy requires close cooperation between business, politics, and civil society, as well as a greater awareness of the strategic role of aluminium for a climate-neutral future.