Europe records 73 percent UBC recycling rate

A report by two Brussels-based trade groups has found the aluminum used beverage can (UBC) recycling in 2020 checked in at 72.8 percent. The rate was the first one recorded since new EU recycling reporting rules have been put in place, according to Metal Packaging Europe and European Aluminium.

By weight, 510,000 metric tons of UBCs were recycled in 2020 according to the two groups, saving 4.2 million tons of CO₂ emissions, by their measure. The region measured includes the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.

The nearly 73 percent figure for 2020 entailed 3 percentage point drop compared with 2019 but a growth of 9 percent cans consumed. “The total amount of aluminum recycled from cans reached a record level of 510,000 metric tons, an increase of more than 20,000 metric tons since the previous year,” state the two groups.

Can manufacturers (members of Metal Packaging Europe) and their aluminum suppliers (members of European Aluminium) say the good news lies in the high rate after introduction of the new EU recycling reporting rules. As well, they praise “the spectacular growth in cans consumed” and that “the total tonnage of recycled aluminum cans has increased.”

Most EU member states now report at the point of entrance of a recycling (melting or reprocesing) facility, instead of the collection phase. This has resulted in a recycling drop for some packaging materials.

“We are fully supportive of the new EU recycling reporting rules as these measure ‘real’ recycling, and we are pleased to notice that this has resulted in only a very minor and likely only temporary drop in the can recycling rate,” Metal Packaging Europe CEO Léonie Knox-Peebles says.

“The aluminum beverage can already meets the highest recyclability performance grade of 95 percent as proposed in the new draft for a Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation," Knox-Peebles adds. "As aluminum beverage cans are fully circular and can be recycled endlessly without losing the aluminum’s inherent properties, we are confident that even in a growing market we will be able to meet our 100 percent beverage can recycling ambition by 2030”.

Maarten Labberton, Director Packaging Group at European Aluminium, says, “With more and more countries turning to deposit-return systems (DRS) we will be able to recycle more cans via a can-to-can remelting solution, generating maximum environmental benefits. We are calling upon those countries with classic EPR systems to invest more into the collection and sorting of the whole aluminum packaging fraction in order to fully close the material loop.”

He adds, “Although we are surprised by the unfounded high reuse targets in the new EU proposal, we welcome the obligation to collect 90 percent or more of metal and plastic beverage containers for recycling, preferably via DRS. A deposit-return system should be balanced, which means that it should be run by an independent operator, have variable deposit fees and no cross subsidies between the materials concerned.’’