Aluminium recycling plant celebrates 25 years

THE Novelis aluminium recycling plant at Latchford, Warrington celebrates its 25th birthday this month – and marked the occasion with a week of events including a hog roast lunch.
Staff – including some who have been at the plant from the first day – joined in the celebrations.
Plant manager Steve Hedar said: “Back in 1991, the UK aluminium can recycling rate was only per cent.
“Today it is well over 60 per cent, in a large part due to the operation of the Latchford plant.
“At the same time, whilst recycling UK cans, we have helped charities, small businesses and local authorities raise several million pounds for important local community improvement campaigns which we’re very proud of.”
The opening of Latchford constituted a big investment for Novelis along with a recruitment drive. After various expansions of the recycling capabilities and manufacturing assets, the Latchford facility is today Europe’s largest dedicated recycling plant for used aluminium beverage cans (UBC) and closed-loop recycling operation for automotive aluminium rolled products, employing more than 170 people.
Rob Cavanagh from Runcorn and John Hoey from Warrington both joined Novelis during the Latchford plant’s original 1991 recruitment drive.
John is a father of two, born and bred in Warrington. He was 39 when he joined Novelis in 1991 as an operator, a position he still holds today.
He said: “It has given me a home, a car, a family and stability,” he said.
Rob began at Latchford in July 1991 as an operator when the company was producing 50,000 tonnes of aluminium ingots per year.
Today, that number has grown to approximately 140,000 tonnes from the UBC plant alone.
A welder by trade, Rob was promoted to a team leader position within three years and is currently a team leader of the shredding area where used beverage cans are received and prepared ahead of their transformation into 25-tonne aluminium ingots.
He said: “Twenty-five-years ago I thought that recycling was the way of the future – I saw the need to recycle and reuse materials as much as possible.
“The plant was brand new and I saw an opportunity.
“Not many people get the chance to start work in a new plant and to help set it up.
“It was a good opportunity and I made the most of it.”
Rob and John were two of around 50 people who were first employed at the Novelis Latchford plant of which 16 remain today.
“Not many people leave here,” Rob said. “Most have retired but they don’t usually leave early.”