Designing aluminum alloys for a recycling friendly world

Recycling aluminum alloys has been shown to provide major economic benefits, as a result it is appropriate for the aluminum industry and the United States as a whole to identify, develop, and implement all technologies that will optimize the benefits of recycling. This paper will focus primarily alloy design for optimizing the reuse of recycled metal; this is both the most forward looking as we move toward a more recycling friendly world and the most overlooked for its potential in maximizing the recycle loop. Some specific approaches to alloy design for recycling are put forth, and some specific compositions for evaluation are proposed. Options for moving forward to further capitalize of the advantages of aluminum recycling are also addressed.