Aluminum beverage can recycling effort diverts aluminum, provides money for charity

The Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) catalyzed a partnership with various local organizations to divert “many thousands” of aluminum beverage cans during Mardi Gras 2023. The institute says the collected used beverage cans (UBCs) were sold for revenue that it doubled and went to charity or local residents.   

According to a news release from CMI, 142,974 UBCs were collected and sold to a local metal recycling facility owned by EMR, generating $3,854, which included the UBC market value of $1,927 and a CMI financial match, for local charities and residents.    

CMI says nearly 93 percent of recycled UBCs become new cans, which means these empty cans will almost certainly be turned into new ones. Additionally, more aluminum available to be recycled enables the aluminum beverage can industry to build on the beverage can’s average 73 percent recycled content, which will lower the greenhouse gas emissions associated with aluminum beverage can manufacturing. The CMI says carbon emission savings from recycling the cans collected in this initiative is equivalent to the emissions from driving a car a little more than 35,000 miles.   

The Mardi Gras pilot program, Recycle Dat, collected UBCs in two ways:   

1. having four recycling hubs and 10 can-only receptacles at strategic points along the most-used parade route during the daytime parades for the two weekends before Mardi Gras Tuesday. Volunteers staffed these strategic points and used a variety of mechanisms to get empty beverage cans from parade-goers. These mechanisms included specially designed backpacks for people to directly insert empty cans for recycling, oversized shopping carts and grabbers to pick up UBCs.   

2. encouraging people to directly drop off UBCs at the centrally located EMR metal recycling facility in New Orleans.   

UBC collection during the initiative supported local charities and allowed people to earn extra cash. CMI says it doubled all the revenue generated from selling the UBCs collected along the parade route. The money raised was split between three local charities: Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity.    

CMI also says it doubled the market rate payout for UBCs brought directly to EMR. Redeemers could put the money toward the three local charities or keep it. Two-thirds of the cans collected were brought directly to EMR, and the rest were collected along the parade route.   

“The structure of Recycle Dat’s can recycling component was an approach only aluminum beverage cans are able to support given their relatively high economic value,” says Scott Breen, vice president of sustainability at CMI. “In a quest to turn trash into treasure, we are very proud that this pilot effort resulted in nearly 150,000 aluminum beverage cans recycled and sold for revenue instead of going to landfills.”   

This effort is one of many activities that CMI is undertaking to make progress toward the ambitious aluminum beverage can recycling rate targets set by CMI members like Ardagh Metal Packaging, Canpack and Novelis. The targets involve going from the most recycled beverage container in the United States with a 45 percent recycling rate in 2020 to a 70 percent rate by 2030, 80 percent by 2040 and 90 percent or more by 2050.