The Aluminum Company of America(Alcoa) is among the globe’s top three producers of aluminum and maintains similar positions in the metal’s associated markets. The company’s operations include worldwide bauxite mining, alumina refining (aluminum’s principal ingredient, processed from bauxite), and aluminum smelting (chemical creation of aluminum).
Alcoa’s aluminum products and components are used worldwide in aircraft, automobiles, beverage cans, buildings, sports and recreation, and a wide variety of industrial and consumer applications, including such Alcoa consumer brands as Alcoa wheels, Reynolds Wrap® aluminum foil, and Baco® household wraps. Other core businesses include precision castings, vinyl siding, closures, packaging machinery, and electrical distribution systems for cars and trucks.
Corporate Facts
- In the mid-1880s, aluminum was a semi-precious metal, more scarce than silver. Total U.S. production in 1884 was 125 pounds.
- Alcoa’s 2006 gross revenues exceeded $30billion (US).
- Chairman and CEO from 1987-1998, Paul O’Neill, was welcomed by President George W. Bush as “the nations Chief Financial Officer” upon being appointed Secretary of Treasury in 1998.
- Daily, Alcoa: mines 86,300 tons of bauxite and 27,300 tons of coal. Refines 41,000 tons of alumina. Smelts 9,575 tons of aluminum. Recycles 2,300 tons of aluminum. Manufactures 8,810 tons of aluminum products. Produces 166 million closures for beverage and food containers. Assembles wire harnesses for 20,400 vehicles. Generates 96,000 MWH of electricity.
- Alcoa has gained presence in China’s aluminum market by forming a strategic alliance with Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco) by way of the China International Trust & Investment (CITIC) iniative.
Criticism
While Alcoa prides themselves in their “Strategic Framework for Sustainability,” which outlines plans for rehabilitating environments which have been sacrificed in order to mine the elements essential to the smelting process, there seems to be an imbalance at hand.
Despite claiming success in reducing their smelting process’ byproduct output of greenhouse gases by as much as %25, signifigant amounts of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, perfluorocarbons(compounds of carbon and fluorine), and mercury emissions continue to be released into the atmosphere by the company’s plants in 44 countries.
Near Gladstone in Queensland, Australia, a gigantic, bright-orange lake known as Red Mud Dam.
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Near Gladstone in Queensland, Australia, a gigantic, bright-orange lake known as Red Mud Dam.
In addition to the gaseous emissions released during the smelting process, traditional aluminum refining produces a 1:1 weight ratio of aluminum:waste designated a hazardous material by the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). The tailings, referred to in industry as “red mud,” toxic due to exceptionally high levels of beryllium(a known carcinogen and immune system irritant), and lesser levels of cyanide and fluoride, raise a more major concern due to the sheer amount of ore residue produced as useless byproduct. So, going by Alcoa’s own claims of 9,575 tons of aluminum being produced daily, 9,575 tons of waste would be amassed as well. And from that waste, toxins dissipate into the local environment by way of groundwater flow.
Recently, Alcoa claims a %50 decrease in their landfill requirements, but that does nothing to dimish already existing dump sites and the toxicity of it’s waste that has been collecting over the company’s 100+ year history.
It’s also important to mention that aluminum smelting is a massively energy intensive process. On average, production of 2 lb(1 kg) of aluminum requires 15 kilowatt-hours(kWh) of energy. The cost of electricity represents about one-third of the cost of smelting aluminum, and represents the source of Alcoa’s most major environmental impact. Considering their plants to be self-sufficient, the company generates 96,000 MWH of electricity from either burning coal or hydro-electric dams, both of which heavily burden their local environments, running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
An example of the stress Alcoa’s power generation has on the environment may be best illustrated by it’s operations outside of Austin in Rockdale, Texas. Since the 1950’s, Pennsylvania-based Alcoa has mined lignite, a low-grade, brown coal, in southwestern Milam County. The lignite is cheap fuel for Alcoa’s plant, which sprawls over 7,000 acres adjoining the mine which is home to four lignite-fired power plants at the smelter, three of which were built before passage of the 1971 Texas Clean Air Act, which mandated much stricter air-quality controls. Like dozens of older facilities across the state, Alcoa was “grandfathered,” meaning the plant has never been required to comply with the 1971 law. All told, the plant generates about 100,000 tons of regulation-exempt pollution per year, making it the largest grandfathered polluter in the state. That total includes about 60,000 tons of acid-rain-producing sulfur dioxide, a byproduct of burning lignite.(Source: The Austin Chronicle)
Also important to note is that forty percent of mercury emissions come from the smokestacks of coal-burning power plants, but the emissions have never been regulated as a pollutant by the EPA. Mercury is a persistent substance that affects the nervous system and is especially dangerous for pregnant women and children. Mercury concentrations in fish have prompted at least 43 states to issue fish consumption advisories.
Compounding Alcoa’s affect on Texas’ environment and economy is the effect lignite mining has on the groundwater surrounding cities and towns rely on for everyday municipal use. The company made the choice to drain away the precious groundwater that was flooding their coal mines, and now that Alcoa was in possession of an estimated 25 billion gallons of water per year in Texas, they have moved into the business of supplying local cities such as Austin and San Antonio with drinking water. Deals which are worth $5billion a year, and require local municipalities that want the water to pay for the infrastructure necessary to supply it. This was water accessible by common ground drilling and wells, and is now subject to a more convoluted delivery process as it’s been removed from it’s natural underground reservoirs.(Source: The Austin Chronicle)
Alcoa operates or supports coal mines all around the world, with it’s most intensive operations taking place in North America and Australia.
In Brazil Alcoa gets it’s power to a smelter in the Amazon from a dam that displaced 35,000 people and flooded 2.820 square kilometres of tropical rainforest when its floodgates were closed in 1984.(Source: The Ecologist v.33, n.10)
Alcoa is in the process of building a smelter and accompanying hydroelectric dam in Karahnjukar, Iceland, costing over $1 billion. The dam will flood 57 square kilometres(35.4 sq miles) in order to spin turbines generating a capacity of 4,400 gigawatt hours per year.(Source: The Ecologist v.33, n.10)
Across the board, the impact Alcoa’s aluminum production has on our global environment is measurably substantial.
Praise
Almost every aluminum product can be commercially (read: profitably) recycled at the end of its useful life, without loss of metal quality or properties. The increasing use of recycled aluminum in many applications attempts to give aluminum credibility as a “green” metal. In 2006, Alcoa’s ratio of purchased scrap to total fabricated product shipments was 28%.
Whether measured in terms of quantity or value, the global use of aluminum exceeds that of any other metal except iron, and it is important in virtually all segments of the world economy.
Alcoa recognizes it’s affect on the environment and has initiated a “Strategic Framework for Sustainability” to raise awareness of these issues within the company’s ranks. Practicing cleaner production to reduce environmental emissions/impacts, the company makes claims of the following progress from 2000-2006:
- reducing sulfur dioxide (SO2) output by 15%
- reduction in volatile organic compounds (VOCs(gases such a carbon dioxide(CO2) that are emitted by red mud and other wasteful byproduct as they decompose in landfills)) by 36%
- reduction in mercury emissions of 2%
The company has adopted a policy in recent years of lining it’s dumpsites with clay as to reduce the effect of toxic waste on local groundwater sources.
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