Cosign’s eco-friendly signage innovations

In a world where sustainability is no longer optional but essential, innovators across industries are turning to smarter, greener materials to lead the way forward. At Cosign, our material of choice has long been aluminium, a metal that checks all the boxes when it comes to durability, versatility, and environmental impact.

Why aluminium?

Aluminium has emerged as one of the most sustainable materials available today and for good reason:

100% recyclable, infinitely reusable: Aluminium can be recycled repeatedly without losing its core properties. This means it is infinitely recyclable without losing its quality. In fact, nearly 75% of all aluminium ever produced is still in use today. This makes it a truly circular material that supports long-term sustainability goals.
Durable yet lightweight: Known for its high strength-to-weight ratio, aluminium is up to 65% lighter than steel without compromising on structural integrity. This makes it ideal for both modular and flexible sign systems that need to be sturdy yet easy to handle and install.
Lower carbon footprint: The aluminium industry is continually innovating to reduce its environmental impact, using cleaner energy sources and more efficient manufacturing practices.
Used across sustainable industries: From automobiles and architecture to consumer goods and packaging, aluminium plays a major role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting energy efficiency in countless applications.

What about the anodised aluminium?

Anodised aluminium is fully recyclable: The anodised layer is extremely thin (a few microns, mostly between 15 and 20 µm. Because of the thinness of this layer, it doesn’t prevent melting or reuse of the aluminium.
Aluminium is melted at high temperatures: During recycling, the aluminium is melted at around 660°C. At these temperatures, the oxide layer either burns off or becomes part of the residue that’s removed.
Recycling of coloured aluminium: Colour pigments in dyed aluminium could create slight variations in recycled alloy batches. This however becomes negligible in mass recycling streams.
Pre-sorting mill-finish and anodised aluminium: Pre-sorting mill finish and anodised aluminium isn’t necessary since it is treated the same in most industrial recycling processes. The oxide layer on aluminium profiles doesn’t harm the process as it burns off or separates cleanly.

Sustainability in action at Cosign

At Cosign, we try to make the best use of aluminium’s sustainable features. When cutting our profiles and making our signs, we often create aluminium waste because of the cutting of our profiles. At first, we’ll see if the waste can be used for other signs. If this wouldn’t be possible, we’ll find other solutions for our waste aluminium.

Having a partnership with an aluminium recycling company, we have regular pickups of our aluminium waste. The materials gained from these pickups can then be 100% reused for new aluminium profiles.

Not only the profile waste is being recycled but even the aluminium sawdust is collected internally and sent out for recycling.

More to come

As part of our ongoing commitment to responsible manufacturing, we are now expanding our efforts even further. Our Research & Development team is hard at work on a new range of sustainable signage solutions, and we’re excited to share that these innovations will be launched soon.

We had the pleasure of introducing our ideas and designs for bamboo signs and E-Signs on both C!Print and Fespa 2025. We were thrilled to see the warm welcomes you gave them and because of this have ever since continued working on the further developments of these products.

Stay connected to our socials and newsletter as we’ll introduce these products here. We’re expecting to communicate our first launch by Q4 of 2025. Make sure to keep a close look as some other new innovations might be communicated as well!