Recycled material content
VMZINC rolled zinc is zinc that is alloyed with copper and titanium, in compliance with European standard EN 988.
As such, it contains over 98.8% of highly pure primary zinc (in compliance with European standard EN1179), 0.13% of copper and 0.08 % of titanium.
The highly pure primary zinc used to manufacture VMZINC rolled zinc comes from a mixture of mining resources and recycled materials whose proportion can vary from one year to another (generally between 10 and 20% of recycled material).
Given that the recycled content in the primary zinc used by VMZINC is 21% (1) and that 100% of the copper and titanium added as alloy elements are recycled (2),
The recycled content of VMZINC rolled zinc is 22%.
The recycled content of VMZINC solutions is not the same as the rate of recycling of used rolled zinc recovered at end-of-life, which is higher than 98% in France and on average 95% in European countries. Used rolled zinc recovered at end-of-life is not recycled in the manufacture of new rolled zinc but is recycled in various areas of application such as galvanisation of steel and brass production.
(1) Sustainable development report – Nyrstar – 2012
(2) VMZINC production sites data - 2012