The Aluminum Renaissance
Aluminum is one of the most circular economy friendly materials in existence, which is why there’s a renaissance occurring. Growth is estimated to be about 6% for the next 3-5 years, driven by the sustainability of aluminum cans.
Brand owners of new drink categories are choosing aluminum cans over alternative packaging, and we foresee further shift from beverages using PET to aluminum in the next few years.
But, once the aluminum has been produced and used as a can, approximately 80% of that is recycled in most developed economies.
The carbon footprint of an average can is therefore very low because it requires less energy to recycle it, re-roll it, and reuse it, than it does to extract it from the earth and process it to create new rolled aluminum.
This popularity is feeding the growth of the sealants that are also needed to ensure the success of aluminum cans. Sealants are flowed-in rubberized gaskets applied during the manufacturing process of the ends. A small amount of material is applied by high-speed equipment while ends rotate on a chuck, forming a gasket in the internal perimeter of the end. This process happens at incredible speeds, making the application almost invisible to the human eye.
These invisible enablers usually don’t come into direct contact with the food or beverage itself – there’s usually some gap or headspace between the food/drink at the top of the container.
But it’s important to formulate all sealants with FDA and EU approval just in case there’s any incidental contact, or potential migration of monomers from the sealant into the food or beverage, such as when the can is upside down.
Ingredients therefore need to be non-toxic and pose no danger to human consumption. This makes choosing the raw materials for these compounds an important task.
Our DAREX technology was invented over 100 years, but it has evolved to keep up with the increasing production speeds in the industry.
However, little has changed about formulations because the original product was so efficient. The evolution of the materials has been focused primarily in making application faster and cleaner. The focus of our innovation in the past few years has shifted toward ensuring the ultimate food and beverage safety of our sealants.
