Alcan Composites USA manufactures products for a wide variety of applications, including graphic display, building cladding, furniture, home construction and transportation. Our brand names include: Alucobond®, Dibond®, Fome-Cor®, Sintra®, Gator®, Gator-Ply®, Syn-Ply® and Luxcell®. Manufacturing facilities for these product lines are located in Benton, KY;Statesville, NC; and Glasgow, KY.

Earlier best practice business programs (Continuous Improvement Program, Six Sigma, LEAN) typically focused on a process improvement such as manufacturing. The Care & Conserve™ sustainability program initiated by Alcan Composites is focused on achieving sustainability through continual, ongoing improvements that safeguard our people, our planet and our business profitability.

The Care & Conserve program requires that we assess our products’ impacts throughout their life cycles, i.e., cradle to grave. At the end of a product’s life cycle, we all seem to have three choices – Resource Recovery (reuse/recycle), Energy Recovery (incinerate) or Disposal (landfill). Our products have been evaluated for Energy Recovery, and incineration is not an option due to carbon residue. Therefore, our Care & Conserve best practices are focused on reusing/recycling materials and on reducing material consumption/disposal in landfills. These practices have been developed from both an “operational perspective” and a “product perspective.”

Alucobond® and Dibond® – Building Cladding, Display and Signage, Transportation

These aluminum-faced panels are manufactured with a polyethylene core in thicknesses ranging from 2mm to 6mm.

• The aluminum facers used in these panels contain a minimum of 75% recycled content, consisting of both post-manufacturing* and post-consumer content.
• The polyethylene core of these products contains a minimum of 5% recycled post-manufacturing* content.

Fome-Cor® Board– Construction, Display and Signage

Fome-Cor is a paper-faced foam board with a foamed polystyrene core manufactured in thicknesses ranging from 1/8" to 3/8". Paper facers are either clay-coated, natural kraft (brown or black) or acid-free. Some products feature either self-adhesive or heat-activated coatings.

• All paper facers are purchased from paper suppliers that participate in either the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard (SFIS) or Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). Both organizations have developed forestry standards designed to improve the sustainability practices of American Forestry.
• Both white- and black-foamed polystyrene cores are manufactured with a minimum monthly average of 25% post-manufacturing/industrial* recycled content.
  Product shipping cartons that may be used are purchased with a minimum 75% recycled content.

Sintra– Display and Signage

Sintra consists of a foamed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheet that is manufactured in thicknesses ranging from 1mm to 13mm. Sintra is a homogenous product.

• Sheets contain a minimum monthly average of 10% post-manufacturing/industrial* recycled content.

Design or Signage Projects

Let’s use the example of a point-of-purchase display project that is being designed with a service life of approximately 8 months:

• A question could be asked to aid reuse/recycle initiatives: Could the project be returned to the fabricator following its initial use for another use? Could the panels be mounted with new graphics over those direct printed for the first project?
• A question could be asked about reducing shipping inefficiencies and/or scrap.

  Long-haul trucks are usually 98" wide. If a design is created that requires 36”-wide skids, only two skids can be loaded across the width of the truck. This leaves 16” of unused space across the truck width. The result is a 16% loss of capacity, wasted fuel and increased shipping costs. Could the project be designed to fit on a 32" skid so three skids could be loaded across the 98” truck width instead of only two?

  We sell a 5’ x 10’ panel for projects that often renders 3’ of dead space on a truck. Could you use a 4’ x 10’ panel or a 5’ x 8’ panel that can be shipped much more effectively? We sell a 5’ x 10’ panel for projects that often renders 3’ of dead space on a truck. Could you use a 4’ x 10’ panel or a 5’ x 8’ panel that can be shipped much more effectively?

• The design shape can impact scrap when die-cutting. Even with a cut-to-size initial piece, if the die-cut produces a great deal of scrap, a new design could be considered to reduce the amount of scrap sent to the landfill.