On July 11th, Mr. Stefan Glimm, Director General of the Global Aluminum Foil Producers Initiative (GLAFRI), gave a speech at the Aluminum Packaging and Sustainability Forum held during the Shanghai International Aluminum Industry Exhibition to introduce the sustainable consumption of the aluminum foil industry.

Stefan said that leveraging the advantages of aluminum foil and expanding aluminum foil applications is an important option to adapt to global trends and meet development challenges. As population growth, rapid urbanization, increased life expectancy, and growing health care demand, the demand for packaged foods and pharmaceuticals continues to grow due to increased end-use consumption. In particular, in order to enable more people to access health and nutrition consumption services, increase the "capacity burden", and the trend of household miniaturization, more requirements for small packaging and sub-packaging of food and pharmaceutical products are required. With the breakthrough of digital and mobile technologies and the development of Internet technology, e-commerce has flourished, and new technology applications and peripheral products have emerged. More application scenarios have emerged in aluminum foil. At the same time, we are also facing severe challenges of climate change and resource shortages. Improving resource efficiency, accelerating recycling, and promoting sustainable consumption have become urgent issues and social trends. Consumers, producers, and retailers hope to improve the overall trend of resource efficiency through packaging improvements, reducing the risk of food waste and reducing the packaging materials used in each package. In addition, in order to reduce landfill, it is also a trend to implement waste sorting and use waste-to-energy to improve renewable energy infrastructure. These changes and trends have brought new demands and requirements to aluminum foil applications, and have also brought new opportunities for the sustainable development of aluminum foil.

The contribution of aluminum foil, especially aluminum foil packaging, to sustainable consumption can be summarized in three areas:

First, aluminum foil packaging helps product protection - reduce food waste

Aluminum foil packaging makes it easier to pack the right amount of food. Therefore, food can be prepared and consumed as needed, thereby reducing waste. At the same time, it also ensures the nutritional content and health needs of the product. Compared to large packaging, small packages prevent product damage and waste, thus saving resources overall. The results of a study on the carbon footprint of a variety of food life cycles by the European Foil Association and the Global Foil Producers Group show that the carbon footprint of the foil packaging segment accounts for only a small portion of the overall product impact on the environment, typically less than 10%. These findings have been evaluated by the United Nations Environment Programme as the best case study for environmental impact.

The Global Aluminum Foil Producers Group and the European Foil Association have produced a ”more is less” aluminum foil promotional video for the advantages of aluminum foil, which is spread globally in 12 languages including the Chinese version. The concept of concentrated expression is: the better the protection, the more savings, "more is less"!

Second, aluminum foil packaging materials consumption is the lowest - less environmental impact

Aluminum foils have a particularly light weight and also have the ability to combine with other materials, all of which benefit from the many properties of aluminum foil. Design high-performance packaging products with minimal materials, flexible packaging with aluminum foil, higher product-to-packaging ratio than rigid packaging, and can be transported with less material space and less energy. Reducing the use of resources leads to a reduction in overall environmental impact and an increase in profitability.

Aluminum foils have a variety of heating properties, and aluminum foil packaging can shorten cooking preparation time and save energy.

Third, the recyclability of aluminum foil packaging highlights - better sustainability

In addition, the aluminum material is fully recyclable and endless, with no loss of quality during the recycling process. The collection, recycling and recovery of aluminum foils has increased, which means that the amount of primary aluminum required in the industry will be less and less. This will result in significant savings in energy consumption during the aluminum smelting process, as the energy required to process the recovered aluminum is 95% lower than the energy required for the same amount of primary aluminum (electrolytic aluminum). The amount of aluminum recovered depends to a large extent on the efficiency of the national packaging collection system. In Europe, the average recovery rate of all aluminum packaging is above 60%, and the recovery rate of aluminum foil containers has exceeded 55%. Even if the aluminum foil package is not separated and recycled, a large portion of the aluminum content of the waste packaging containing aluminum foil can be recycled from the bottom ash of the incinerator when it enters the waste incineration power generation system. During the incineration process, the oxidized aluminum releases energy, which is converted into heat and electric energy to improve power generation efficiency. The recovery of aluminum from the bottom ash after waste incineration has enormous recycling potential. Currently in Europe, the recycling ratio of this part of aluminum is: aluminum foil: 40+%, composite packaging: 50-75%. The industry believes that more aluminum will be recovered from the bottom ash after incineration in the future.

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