New record of aluminium beverage can recycling in Europe!

(October 15, 2019) In the European Union and EFTA countries 31 billion cans were recycled or 420,000 tons of aluminium...a new all-time record of 74,5% in 2017.

All aluminium cans are equally recyclable, no matter the colour, design, format or size. Recycling aluminium needs 95% less energy than producing it from raw material due to only 5% of greenhouse gas emissions which are generated during the recycling process compared to the production with raw material.

Therefore can recycling saves about 3 million tons of GHG emissions - the annual emissions of a mid-sized European town.

Can manufacturers (members of Metal Packaging Europe) and their aluminium suppliers are confident that the European can recycling rate will increase further by improved collections systems ('yellow' or 'blue' bags and bins) and initiatives like deposit returns and take back schemes ('cash for cans').

The recycling industry and can producers are ready to invest in more recycling capacities, providing other stakeholders like public and private waste management operators, are equally prepared to invest in additional modern sorting facilities.

With a recycling rate of 99%, Germany has the highest value in Europe. The reason for this is the deposit system, which has become well established in the meantime, as well as the recovery of residual quantities via the yellow bin as well as metal recovery from municipal waste incineration plants.

For more information please refer to the press release of European Aluminium and Metal Packaging Europe.