ReMA’s Vesper Specification Highlights Collaborative Achievement in Recycled Materials Industry

The Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) recently updated the ReMA's ISRI Specifications to include the board-approved addition of 'Vesper' to the aluminum specifications. The Vesper specification was approved by ReMA's Board of Directors on Tuesday, July 15.

The specification can be made up of aluminum sheet, extrusion, and/or plate grades (wrought aluminum) segregated from Zorba or Twitch.

"Vesper is a derivative of twitch," said Neil Byce, ReMA's Vice-Chair. "Twitch is made from the shredding process and enhanced with mechanical equipment. Vesper takes that additional steps to further process the material."

The material must be dry, and contain no more than one percent max free magnesium, one percent max free zinc, and 0.50 percent analytical iron. Vesper must not contain more than one percent max non-metallics. Material must be free of excessively oxidized material, air bag canisters, or any sealed or pressurized items. Any variation should be sold by special arrangement between buyer and seller.

"This is a material that many of us already handle," said Sean Daoud, ReMA's Secretary/Treasurer. "We're putting more scientific research into making a feedstock for a shortfall of production materials that we need for everyday consumption."

He added that the new specification can provide recycling facilities that already produce vesper more profits and will bring in a feedstock for aluminum smelters. From a financial perspective, Daoud said that Vesper is one of the most significant specifications that ReMA has created in the last decade.

"It's a prime example of what happens when we come together as an industry and create a solution," Daoud said. "It'll serve as an example for us as we try to get a handle on copper export controls. That's because the equipment that makes Vesper can also help make the feedstock for copper."

According to Dave Bestwick, chair of ReMA's nonferrous division, Vesper is a product that has been traded but there wasn't a clear specification that the mills could work with or that processors could sell against.

"So, we all sat down, talked about what we needed, and put language around those needs to create a specification that can be traded across the industry," he said. "Everyone listened to each other in a respectful and transparent manner. It made the process easy from start to finish. Everyone spoke up and contributed."

Byce noted that bringing in equipment and service providers was an important part of the process. Giving them a voice at the table would help ensure that manufacturers would be able to meet the specification with the current technology available.

"It was truly a collaborative process between the end users, the aluminum producers, the manufacturers and suppliers of the raw material, and the equipment manufacturers," he said.

STEINERT was one of the equipment and service providers that came into the conversation in early 2025. Grayson Rutherford, Territory Manager - Metals at STEINERT, said the company had already been working with several customers to determine what was achievable for multiple sorting technologies. These included X-ray Transmission and LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy)-a technology that analyzes material according to its elemental composition.

"Once it became clear that this material would become a specification, we knew there needed to be some data behind and that it needed to be achievable for the end consumers and aluminum mills," Rutherford said.

According to Rutherford, STEINERT had been working on wrought aluminum for the last couple of years, experimenting with different types of equipment to determine which technology would work best, be most cost effective, and get the best results for customers safely.

"STEINERT's machines do make Vesper but it's good to do a trial beforehand to determine the composition of each recycler's Zorba and Twitch, since those are the products that make Vesper," he said. "Everyone already breaks down the amount of copper, heavy metals, and metallics there are, now people will start performing experiments to determine how much wrought there is in the material and the value of pulling it out."

In addition to the industry-wide collaboration, Byce noted that the Vesper specification illustrates how far technology has come in the recycled materials industry.

"It makes me wonder what's next for the industry," he said. "And I feel excited about what will be possible at our facilities."