Circular aluminium needs trusted data sharing

Europe’s aluminium value chain is under increasing pressure as valuable secondary resources leave the region. In 2024, the EU recorded an €11.1 billion trade deficit in aluminium, while aluminium scrap exports continued to grow, with particularly strong flows to India and the United States. This trend threatens Europe’s recycling industry at a time when demand for recycled aluminium is accelerating. To meet its climate and industrial ambitions, Europe is expected to require an additional 1.5–2 million tonnes of aluminium scrap by 2030, yet significant volumes of this strategically important resource continue to leave the continent.

This challenge matters because recycled aluminium is one of the most effective tools available for industrial decarbonisation. Producing aluminium from recycled material can require up to 95% less energy than primary production while substantially reducing CO₂ emissions. At the same time, growing demand for low-carbon materials is increasing the strategic and economic value of secondary aluminium. The question is therefore no longer whether more aluminium should be recycled, but how Europe can retain, trace and utilise its recyclable resources more effectively. Achieving this requires not only efficient collection and recycling technologies, but also trusted mechanisms for sharing information about material quality, composition, provenance and availability across value chains.

Today, recycling and reuse pathways are often constrained not only by technology but by fragmented and inaccessible data. Material may be available but insufficiently characterised. Scrap may be technically suitable for high-value applications but difficult to match with the right use case. Companies frequently possess relevant information yet lack trusted mechanisms for sharing it without exposing commercially sensitive business data. These barriers reduce confidence in secondary material streams, limit upcycling opportunities and make it harder to retain high-value aluminium within European circular value chains.

Europe therefore needs collaborative digital infrastructure for circular aluminium: infrastructure that enables trusted, purpose-bound and interoperable exchange of material data among recyclers, remelters, processors, manufacturers, technology providers and other stakeholders. Such infrastructure should make circular decision-making easier rather than more burdensome, enabling traceability, lifecycle assessment, planning, benchmarking and material matching while preserving data sovereignty and business confidentiality.

An early prototype of the RecAL Dataspace in action at CANCOM Austria (© RTDS Group)

The RecAL Dataspace as a collaborative initiative

The RecAL project is advancing a portfolio of circular technologies across recycling, upcycling, recyclate-based alloys and sustainability assessment. The RecAL Dataspace is intended to connect these technological developments through a common data language and a shared digital environment for industrial data exchange. Its purpose is not simply to store information, but to help actors in the aluminium processing industry monitor, plan and improve the management of recyclates across value chains.

By 2027, the project aims to demonstrate a minimum viable product that allows project partners and selected external test users to track aluminium recyclates by volume, weight, quality and other relevant characteristics. The planned prototype is expected to include a data space, interfaces and a frontend for testing. It should provide or simulate realistic information on recyclate availability using industry data and offer a foundation for future marketplace functions.

A particular focus of the RecAL Dataspace is enabling recyclers and scrap providers to assess input materials more transparently while creating stronger connections between suppliers, recyclers and manufacturers. Feedback from upcycling strategies and alloy design activities can be linked to material information, helping downstream users make more informed decisions about recyclate selection and use. The long-term vision is a system capable of tracking and simulating the movement of aluminium recyclates through industrial value chains while providing meaningful insights into quality, availability and circular performance.

Within RecAL, CANCOM Austria plays a central role in translating this vision into secure digital infrastructure. Its work focuses on the architecture of the RecAL Dataspace: a sovereign, decentralised and zero-trust environment that enables aluminium value-chain actors to exchange sensitive material and process data without giving up control over it. This trust layer is essential for engaging scrap providers, recyclers, manufacturers and buyers, and for supporting future functions such as digital product passports (DPPs), material traceability and marketplace-style matching of aluminium recyclates.

The RecAL Dataspace is based on the principles of a federated dataspace: a decentralised ecosystem in which multiple participants can exchange data securely according to agreed technical, organisational and legal frameworks. Rather than centralising information, the approach allows organisations to maintain sovereignty over their own data while sharing only what is necessary for agreed purposes. The architecture is designed to be vendor-independent, cloud-agnostic and interoperable across organisations, locations and domains. It supports highly secure peer-to-peer data exchange and fine-grained access controls, enabling companies to collaborate without sacrificing data ownership or control.

Key functions under development include standardised material data sheets, traceability mechanisms that can support future Digital Product Passport initiatives, lifecycle assessment capabilities and decision-support tools for circular value-chain management. These functions will be tested through RecAL’s industrial use cases in the aeronautics, construction and automotive sectors, providing practical environments in which circular performance and recyclate management strategies can be evaluated.

From project prototype to circular marketplace

A successful dataspace can become more than a research project outcome. If adopted more broadly, the RecAL Dataspace could evolve into a virtual marketplace where aluminium recyclates can be offered, discovered, evaluated and procured across value chains. Such a marketplace would help retain valuable secondary resources within Europe while improving transparency and efficiency for all participants.

Achieving this vision requires more than technical infrastructure. Success depends on alignment between technology, governance and business incentives. The platform must support harmonised data formats, secure access controls, traceability and integration with sustainability assessment tools. Commercially, it must create clear value for recyclers, manufacturers, technology providers and end users alike. Governance arrangements must establish clear rules regarding access rights, confidentiality, liability and compliance with relevant European regulations.

The RecAL Dataspace should therefore be understood as an experiment in industrial collaboration as much as a digital platform. Its success will ultimately depend on whether the wider aluminium ecosystem perceives sufficient trust, fairness and practical value to participate.

An invitation to engage

As the RecAL Dataspace develops from concept towards demonstration, its value will depend on engagement from the aluminium, circular economy and data-space communities in five areas.

1. Data standards and common language: Which parameters are essential for credible aluminium recyclate data sheets, material matching and future digital product passports?
2. Trust and governance: What contractual, organisational and technical safeguards are needed for companies to share useful data without exposing commercially sensitive information?
3. Interoperability: How can circular aluminium data infrastructures align with emerging European data-space practices, Life Cycle Assessment tools and product information systems?
4. Adoption incentives: What value propositions would motivate recyclers, remelters, manufacturers and end users to contribute to and use a shared dataspace?
5. Post-project sustainability: What operating model, ownership structure and stakeholder commitments are needed for the RecAL Dataspace to remain useful beyond the funded project period?

These questions are not peripheral to the technical development of the RecAL Dataspace; they are central to whether circular aluminium data sharing can become an accepted part of industrial practice.

Conclusion

Europe’s transition to circular aluminium requires both technological innovation and trusted data collaboration. At a time when valuable secondary aluminium resources are increasingly contested and demand for recycled material continues to grow, reliable information has become as important as the material itself. The RecAL Dataspace offers a practical framework for connecting recyclers, manufacturers and other value-chain actors through secure, sovereign and interoperable data exchange.

By combining traceability, lifecycle insights, material intelligence and trusted collaboration, the RecAL Dataspace has the potential to strengthen European circular value chains, improve resource efficiency and support higher-value use of secondary aluminium. The project has already received significant recognition, including the ÖGUT Environmental Prize 2025, highlighting its role as an example of how circular innovation, industrial collaboration and sovereign digital infrastructure can work together to support a more sustainable European industrial future.

If Europe is to make circular aluminium a credible industrial reality, trusted data sharing must become part of the material system itself.