Alur Álvinnsla is located in the industrial area of Grundartangi. The company was established in Helguvík in 1998 and has operated at its current site at Grundartangi since 2012.
Our core activity is the recovery of aluminum from aluminum dross and aluminum scrap, sourced from both primary smelting and other aluminum-rich material streams. Processing is carried out using Best Available Techniques (BAT), within a closed-loop system: the salt slag produced during recycling is itself recovered and supplied to offtakers for reuse in other industries, minimizing waste at every stage of production.
Alur holds an operating licence issued by Umhverfisstofnun (the Icelandic Environment Agency), authorizing the processing of up to 15,000 tonnes of aluminum dross and other aluminum-rich materials annually. The licence is valid until 2038 and is publicly available on ust.is.
Our goal is to recover and recycle aluminum as efficiently as possible, contributing to a more circular and lower-carbon aluminum industry. Aluminum is uniquely suited to this: it can be recycled indefinitely without any loss of value or quality, using only a fraction of the energy required for primary production.
In 2023, we introduced a new solution to recycle salt slag and NMP (non-metallic products) generated during the recycling of aluminum dross. This development project has been ongoing for three years and allows us to further minimize waste and increase the recovery of valuable materials from our production process. All construction, design and material testing take place at Alur's facility at Grundartangi. Materials that previously went to disposal are now sold on for reuse by our partners.
Aluminum
can be recycled
indefinitely
Near 75% of all aluminium ever made is still in use
It requires up to 95% less energy to recycle aluminium than to produce primary metal
Aluminium is the third most common element in the earth's crust – only oxygen and silicon exist in greater amounts
Recycling 1T of aluminium saves 9T of CO2 emissions and 4T of bauxite – the raw material from which aluminium is made.
Aluminum recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Aluminium is unique in that it can be used again and again without losing its original properties. Only about 5% of the energy originally used to produce the aluminium is needed to recycle it.
This means that much value is generated when the aluminium is recycled, which provides the foundation for the operation of recycling companies all over Europe.
Energy savings due to aluminum recycling significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as the majority of emissions in global aluminium production is generally due to energy production.
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We've closed the loop at Grundartangi - now our goal is to keep raising the bar on how much value we recover from every tonne, and in the future, to become a processing center for all material and waste streams in the aluminum industry.