Window becomes window again

As one of the largest aluminum suppliers in Europe, the Hydro Group feels a responsibility to stay ahead. This, when it comes to quality, but also certainly to sustainability. As of December this year, SAPA by Hydro is using recycled aluminum for all its products.

Roger Cremer, Country Manager Benelux of SAPA: "In our industry, sustainability is often associated with properties of window frames, such as insulation values. However, the Hydro Group believes that sustainability starts with sustainable materials. Aluminum can very often be recycled, and is therefore ideally suited for this. Starting this month, we will launch the Making and Breaking Windows campaign, showing how we will be using recycled aluminum for all of our products starting in December."

Minimum 75% recycled aluminum

The recycled aluminum is called Hydro Circal 75R and is the first independently certified recycled aluminum, according to Cremer. "Hydro Circal 75R has the same properties as primary aluminum, but it consists of at least 75% of recycled, discarded aluminum (End Of Life aluminum scrap). This aluminum comes from old façade profiles, windows and doors. These are purified, cut, sorted, ground into chips, de-lacquered and finally remelted in our own facilities. Our remelting plant in Clervaux (Luxembourg) supplies us with Circal 75R aluminum for our new SAPA profiles. With this, we achieve an extremely low CO2 footprint of about 2.3 kg of aluminum. This is seven times or 86% less than the global average for primary aluminum."

Consciously going the extra mile

The production of Hydro Circal 75R is due to years of development. "In the past, we already used recycled aluminum for some projects, but not yet structurally. From 2019, we started developing our first products. The first of these was the fire-resistant curtain wall Elegance 52 FR, and now we can implement our entire product range in Hydro Circal 75R. We are currently the only ones who can do this on this scale."

SAPA by Hydro has the advantage that the Hydro Group has its own smelters and press houses. This has enabled the company to achieve sustainability at the product level. "With this, we go a step further than is necessary to be allowed to use certain labels. We impose it on ourselves to take that extra step. Everything we use has already been a window or door, but so is becoming a window and door again. The next step is for us to recover scrap from our customers." 

Same quality, better story

And what about the quality of the aluminum? "Aluminum remains just as strong when it is recycled. However, technology still limits us in the percentage of recycled material we can use. Currently, 75% is the maximum. For the end customer, according to Cremer, nothing actually changes. "The facade builder doesn't pay a penny more for it. However, they really get a product for early adapters, with a very good story. Sustainability is not hype for us, but a matter of course."