The Future of Aluminum Recycling

Important, Not Important

Aluminum. It’s everywhere!

And we’re going to need a hell of a lot more of it in the future.

Aluminum is a primary ingredient in solar, wind, hydro, concentrated solar, bioenergy, the grid, batteries, hydrogen, and more. And that’s just electricity generation and distribution, to say nothing of consumer goods, from EVs to baseball bats.

Great news: we already collect and recycle a hell of a lot of it. Compared to, say, plastic, this is a huge win!

But…the bit we haven’t been able to recycle is 1) at scale, a lot, and 2) FAIRLY hazardous.

Luckily, some very smart young folks may have figured out how to recycle more of it, and maybe even power their whole operation from the inside out.

We have to rebuild our entire economy to get to zero new emissions, and then go even further. Some sectors are far easier than others, and deep tech, heavy industry, is the latter.

It’s not sexy, but heavy industry is – often literally – the foundation for everything we do. Think metals and minerals and concrete and steel and more.

My guests today are Rostam Reifschneider & Julian Davis.

Rostam and Julian are childhood friends, and the founders of Hydrova, a new company that focuses on developing technology to repurpose waste byproducts of aluminum recycling that are typically landfilled into valuable commodities.

Rostam is another 776 Fellow that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and sharing with you.

What they’re trying to do is so important. If you’ve ever watched a video about aluminum production or recycling on YouTube, well, it’s like looking at a collection of rings being forged in the fires of Mordor.

Finding a way of making that process more efficient, more circular, less dangerous for people and the climate, and just in time for us to need much more of the product?

Well, that’s a story I’ve just got to share.

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INI Book Club:

• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant
• Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
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Links:

• Learn more on the Hydrova website
• Connect with Hydrova on LinkedIn

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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

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