Our Sustainability Commitment
Aluminum is one of the most sustainable metals on the planet. It is infinitely recyclable, retaining its properties through countless remelting cycles without degradation in quality. Yet the primary production of aluminum remains energy-intensive, accounting for roughly 2% of global electricity consumption. For manufacturers like Yogi Extrusions, this reality carries both a responsibility and an opportunity: every improvement we make in recovery, efficiency, and recycled content directly reduces our environmental footprint while strengthening the value proposition we deliver to our customers.
At Yogi Extrusions, sustainability is not a peripheral initiative. It is embedded in our operational strategy, from billet sourcing through extrusion, finishing, and packaging. In this article, we share our measurable progress through 2024 and outline the targets that guide our path forward.
Scrap Recovery: Reaching 95%
Aluminum scrap is not waste — it is a valuable resource. Every kilogram of aluminum recovered and remelted saves approximately 95% of the energy required to produce the same amount from raw bauxite ore. Recognizing this, we have invested heavily in closed-loop recycling systems that capture process scrap at every stage of production.
In 2024, our scrap recovery rate reached 95%, up from 87% in 2020. This achievement stems from several coordinated improvements. Our extrusion presses now feed butt-end offcuts and die-start material directly into segregated collection bins, sorted by alloy series. Fabrication operations — cutting, drilling, and CNC machining — route chips and swarf through dedicated conveyors into alloy-specific hoppers. This segregation is critical: mixing alloys in remelting reduces the quality of the resulting billet, so maintaining alloy purity throughout the recovery chain ensures that our recycled material meets the same specifications as primary aluminum.
Our on-site remelting furnace processes recovered scrap into homogenized billets that re-enter our extrusion workflow. By keeping this loop entirely within our facility, we eliminate the carbon cost of transporting scrap to external recyclers and maintain full traceability from recovery to finished product. In 2024 alone, our closed-loop system diverted over 2,400 metric tons of aluminum from landfill.
Energy Efficiency Improvements
Since 2015, Yogi Extrusions has reduced energy consumption per kilogram of extruded product by 40%. This reduction has been achieved through a combination of equipment upgrades, process redesign, and facility-wide efficiency measures.
The most significant contributor has been the adoption of regenerative heating systems in our billet preheating furnaces. Traditional gas-fired furnaces exhaust hot combustion gases directly. Our regenerative burners capture waste heat from exhaust gases and use it to preheat incoming combustion air, recovering up to 85% of exhaust energy. This technology has reduced gas consumption in our preheating stage by approximately 35% while maintaining the precise temperature uniformity required for consistent extrusion quality.
Across our facility, we have completed a full transition to LED lighting, reducing lighting energy use by 60%. Variable frequency drives (VFDs) on hydraulic pumps, cooling fans, and conveyor motors adjust power consumption in real time based on load demand, eliminating the energy waste associated with fixed-speed operation. Process optimization, including refined die design and improved billet-to-profile yield ratios, has further reduced the energy cost per unit of finished product.
Our cooling water systems now operate on closed-loop circuits with evaporative cooling towers, reducing both water consumption and the energy needed for water treatment. Collectively, these measures have lowered our annual energy expenditure while simultaneously increasing throughput capacity.
Recycled Content Integration
The embodied carbon of an aluminum extrusion is largely determined at the billet stage. Primary aluminum produced via the Hall-Héroult electrolysis process carries an embodied carbon footprint of approximately 12–16 kg CO₂ per kilogram of metal, depending on the energy source used for smelting. Recycled aluminum, by contrast, carries approximately 0.5–1.0 kg CO₂ per kilogram. The difference is substantial, and increasing recycled content in our billets is one of the most effective levers available to reduce our overall carbon intensity.
As of 2024, Yogi Extrusions maintains an average recycled aluminum content of 30% across our billet supply. This blend of primary and recycled metal is carefully controlled to ensure that mechanical properties, surface quality, and extrudability remain fully compliant with international standards including EN 755, ASTM B221, and customer-specific specifications. Our metallurgical team monitors trace element levels in each billet batch to prevent impurity buildup that can occur with higher recycled fractions, ensuring consistent alloy performance.
We are actively working with our upstream suppliers to increase recycled content to 50% by 2030 without compromising product quality. Advanced sorting technologies and improved scrap classification systems are enabling higher-purity recycled feedstocks that make this target technically achievable across all alloy grades we produce.
Eliminating Single-Use Plastics
Packaging is an often-overlooked contributor to manufacturing waste. Aluminum extrusions require protective packaging to prevent surface damage during transport, and the industry has traditionally relied heavily on polyethylene film, plastic strapping, and foam inserts. At Yogi Extrusions, we have systematically addressed this dependency.
Our packaging transition, which began in 2022 and reached completion in early 2024, has replaced single-use plastic wrapping with recyclable corrugated cardboard sleeves and biodegradable stretch film made from plant-based polymers. Foam edge protectors have been replaced with molded pulp inserts manufactured from recycled paper. For domestic shipments and repeat customers, we have introduced a reusable crate program: heavy-duty steel and HDPE crates are delivered with finished extrusions, returned by the customer after unpacking, and cycled back into our packaging line. This program currently covers approximately 40% of our domestic shipments and has eliminated over 18 metric tons of single-use plastic packaging annually.
Plastic strapping has been replaced with polyester (PET) strapping manufactured from recycled beverage bottles. PET strapping offers equivalent tensile strength and load retention while being fully recyclable at the customer’s facility. These changes have reduced our packaging-related plastic waste by 78% compared to 2021 levels.
Looking Ahead: Our 2030 Goals
The progress documented here is meaningful, but it represents a midpoint, not a destination. Our 2030 sustainability roadmap commits Yogi Extrusions to three headline targets:
Carbon-neutral manufacturing operations. We are pursuing this through a combination of continued energy efficiency gains, on-site solar power generation, procurement of renewable energy certificates, and verified carbon offset programs for residual emissions. Our feasibility assessment, completed in Q2 2024, confirmed that this target is achievable with currently available technologies and energy procurement options.
50% recycled aluminum content in billets. Reaching this level requires close partnership with scrap suppliers and continued investment in analytical equipment to manage alloy chemistry at higher recycled fractions. We are confident this is achievable while maintaining full compliance with mechanical property and surface finish specifications across all alloy grades.
Renewable energy expansion. We plan to install rooftop and ground-mounted solar photovoltaic systems capable of generating up to 30% of our facility’s electricity demand. The first phase of this installation is scheduled for 2025, with full capacity expected by 2028. This investment will reduce our dependence on grid electricity and provide a hedge against energy price volatility.
We believe that sustainable manufacturing and operational excellence are not competing priorities — they are the same priority. Every efficiency gain, every kilogram of scrap recovered, and every unit of renewable energy deployed strengthens both our environmental performance and the value we deliver to customers. To learn more about our environmental philosophy, visit our Sustainability page. If you have questions about the environmental attributes of our products or would like to discuss how our sustainability initiatives can support your own ESG targets, contact our team.