Aluminum can recycling rate declines

The aluminum used beverage can (UBC) recycling rate in the U.S. has declined to 43 percent from 45 percent in 2020, according to 2023 data from the Aluminum Association and the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI). The organizations blame aging recycling infrastructure and a passive approach to recycling policy for the decline.

The latest data was based on a survey of aluminum can recyclers, can makers, government and other data sources.

The 2023 rate is far below the average rate of approximately 52 percent since tracking began in 1990. The organizations say that while it exceeds the equivalent recycling rate for glass (39.6 percent) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles (20 percent), recycling rates for aluminum cans are at their lowest point in decades.

Coordinated action needed

“Our current approach to recycling in America is simply not working at the level we need,” says Charles Johnson, president and CEO of the Aluminum Association, which is based in Arlington, Virginia. “While we recycled more than 46 billion cans in 2023, we threw away more than 61 billion cans—that’s an average of around 15 12-packs of cans for each person in the country. That’s nearly $1.2 billion worth of aluminum that ends up in a landfill every year. This is bad for the economy, the environment and national security. It also puts the United States toward the bottom of aluminum can recycling compared to peer countries.”

CMI President Robert Budway adds, “Greater coordinated action and increased long-term strategic investments are necessary to raise the aluminum beverage can recycling rate. Our recycling primer and roadmap demonstrates how we can achieve our targets of a 70 percent recycling rate by 2030, 80 percent by 2040 and 90 percent by 2050.”

Budway adds that the Aluminum Association recognizes reaching these targets will be a challenge in need of strategies tailored to the nation’s political environment.

“Certain policy prescriptions, such as comprehensive extended producer responsibility [EPR] laws that include recycling refunds (deposit return systems), will greatly improve recovery of beverage containers," he says. "However, not every local jurisdiction will consider these frameworks. CMI members are also focused on improving household and away-from-home recycling access, increasing consumer education for recycling and developing more efficient aluminum beverage can sortation at recycling centers to help reach our goals.”

The CMI and Aluminum Association announced aluminum can recycling goals in late 2021. Their approach to attaining these goals involves four action pillars:

1. catalyze the passage and implementation of well-designed deposit systems at the state and federal levels;
2. increase and improve household and away-from-home recycling;
3. ensure that more cans are properly sorted at recycling centers; and
4. increase consumer understanding of the importance of aluminum can recycling and the ability to collect and sell used beverage cans for cash.

However, no movement has been seen at the state or federal level regarding deposit systems, though EPR legislation has advanced, with California (which already has a bottle bill), Colorado, Oregon (also a bottle bill state), Maine (also a bottle bill state) and Minnesota having passed and begun to enact such legislation.

Slow legislative progress

The Aluminum Association and CMI are working with several organizations, including can makers, beverage brands, environmental organizations and policy think tanks on new approaches to drive increased recycling in the United States, as detailed in the aluminum beverage can recycling rate targets progress report the CMI released Dec. 5.

In that report, the CMI says, “Of all four pillars of action, CMI has invested the most in recycling refunds (i.e., beverage container deposit return systems) advocacy since modeling detailed in the primer and roadmap showed this pillar is where the most progress can be made, as a national, well-designed deposit program was estimated to deliver a 48-percentage point increase in the U.S. aluminum beverage can recycling rate. That increase would mean that even the industry’s most ambitious goal of a 90 percent recycling rate would be achieved. Further, CMI was clear in the roadmap that without more recycling refund programs, even the lowest target will be virtually impossible to achieve.”

CMI also notes in the report that progress to enact a new deposit program has been slower than the organization and its members would like, as none of the bills it supported have been passed to date.

In the year ahead, CMI plans to push for recycling refunds in strategic states where there is political will as part of the newly formed Coalition for High Performance Recycling (CHPR), a group of consumer brands, environmental nonprofits, material manufacturers, packaging suppliers and trade associations. This group will promote EPR policies for packaging and paper products and recycling refunds as the form of EPR for beverage containers.

“By establishing recycling refunds within a general EPR for packaging bill, recycling rates increase for all packaging, and the bill should have a better chance of success than a recycling refunds-only bill," CMI says.

The Aluminum Association and CMI also are working at the federal level to support passing two bipartisan bills by Jan. 3, 2025, the end of the 118^th Congress, that would meaningfully improve recycling systems in the United States. The Recycling Infrastructure Accessibility Act (RIAA) and the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act (RCAA) would increase access to recycling services and improve tracking of recycled material that is essential to America’s supply chain security, sustainable economy and manufacturing base, the organizations say.

Progress in additional areas of focus

In the area of increasing household and away-from-home recycling, the CMI report notes that much of its efforts have been spent in the latter area, “which is where one-third of beverage containers are consumed,” by engaging in “recycling activations at events or schools, typically in a way that leverages the fact that used beverage cans are consistently one of the most valuable commodities in the recycling system.”

To address missorted cans at material recovery facilities (MRFs), the CMI started a grant program in collaboration with The Recycling Partnership in 2021 with funding from Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings for can-capture equipment investments. To date, the program has funded equipment at six MRFs.

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CMI also conducted testing in 2022 at several MRFs on missorted cans and the return on investment (ROI) to capture them. The tests at five loss points across three diverse MRFs found an average loss of seven to 36 UBCs per minute, CMI reports, which represents an annual average revenue loss of $71,900 with a payback period of three years, according to its ROI calculator.

Finally, under the pillar of increasing consumer understanding of the importance of recycling, CMI reports that one tactic it is pursuing is on-can recycling messaging, saying it is important because “it precisely targets aluminum beverage can users who will be making the choice to put the can in the recycling.”

“Academic research found that emphasizing the transformational nature of the material leads to higher recycling rates,” CMI notes in its report. “The most common recycling messaging on cans—‘please recycle’—doesn’t do this. In contrast, the Metal Recycles Forever logo connects to the transformational nature of metal.” While this logo is more widely used in Europe on beverage cans, it use in the U.S. is limited to a couple small brands in the United States. “CMI is hopeful more beverage brands will choose to use Metal Recycles Forever or other messaging that is in line with what research shows leads to higher aluminum beverage can recycling.”

Need for improvement

“If we are truly serious about meeting clean energy goals—and building more secure and resilient domestic supply chains—better recycling policy is essential,” Johnson says. “Simply recycling all of the aluminum cans we currently throw away would generate enough energy to power 2 million homes for a year. Americans don’t agree on everything, but we can all agree that this is a pointless waste, and we must do better.”

Aluminum demand is growing thanks to increased demand for sustainable packaging, safe and efficient vehicles, greener buildings and vital infrastructure, and aluminum companies in the U.S. has invested in new recycling capacity to help realize that demand, making the issue of aluminum can recovery even more acute, the Aluminum Association says.