RUSSIA RUSAL APPROVES NEW STRATEGY FOR PRODUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT

The Board of Directors of the Russian multinational RUSAL, a world leader in aluminum production, has just approved a strategy for the management of production waste until 2030. In particular, it is based on the ‘Zero Waste to Landfill’ approach, an ambitious strategy for the metals and mining sector.

The objective of this measure is to reduce or even eliminate waste generation. To achieve this requires the introduction of best available technologies and a gradual transition to the use, recycling and sale of products from waste. This approach should ensure that, by 2030, at least 95% of aluminum and silicon production waste is included in the company’s turnover and processing and at least 65% of alumina production, representing an increase of more than 2.5 times compared to 2020 levels.

Among the measures approved, RUSAL will resume environmental monitoring, surveys and evaluation of the work of each waste disposal facility operated and suspended. Until 2025, the company plans to evaluate the works to ensure the reliable technical condition, including the planned reclamation of the waste disposal areas.

The strategy contains a detailed plan for the complete decommissioning of equipment and waste containing polychlorinated biphenyls by 2025. This commitment is fully in line with the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Irina Bakhtina, RUSAL’s sustainability manager, points out that “RUSAL gives priority to minimizing the generation of industrial waste and ensuring that waste is returned to a closed economic cycle: reuse or recycling within our own production or in other industries”.

However, RUSAL currently sends more than two-thirds of its production waste, excluding bauxite and nepheline waste and tailings, for recycling through an authorized contractor.