German metal cans on the upswing, but regulatory challenges grow
Canned vegetables in a German supermarket. Image: Jens Kastner
By Jens Kastner, in Hamburg
Can usage and sales in Europe’s largest economy, Germany, are robust, indicating a positive outlook for metal packagers and fillers. Separate data from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany and Forum Getränkedose (FGD), an association representing can majors the Ardagh Group, Ball Beverage Packaging Europe and Crown Holdings, show that the metal can was the only beer container to see growth in Germany in 2023, at 3.8%, compared to a 4.5% drop in overall beer sales.
“The can shows its strengths, especially in summer: the refreshing hiss when opened, the cool surface and the quick cooling enhance the enjoyment experience,” said Felix Brandenburg, FDG CEO.
Speaking to CanTech International, he added that “the can is a pick-me-up in their real life, because it fits in with today’s consumer behaviour patterns across all ages. The can is light yet sturdy, practical, handy, and comfortable, making it the ideal companion for on-the-go, whether travelling, at festivals or picnicking in the park.”
This view is supported by a recent survey of 1,000 consumers in Germany by London, UK-based market researcher, Euromonitor International, that shows the preference for metal packaging among German consumers rose from 10.7% in 2023, to 13.9% in 2024, while the preference for recyclable packaging increased from 46.8% in 2023 to 47.3% in 2024. According to Euromonitor, Germans generally consider metal packaging as a sturdy and durable option for food and beverage items, ideal for products requiring long shelf life and delivering minimal contamination. The non-reactive nature of metal cans ensures food safety, as metal cans do not release harmful substances, aligning with the country’s strict food safety regulations. Growing concerns around microplastics pollution are driving German consumers and industries to seek more sustainable packaging alternatives, indirectly benefiting the sale of metal beverage cans for food and beverage packaging.
“This has reinforced consumer trust, particularly in categories like processed seafood and tomato pastes. Additionally, the convenience of metal cans for ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages has contributed to their increasing demand,” said Praneetha Faustina, associate content analyst at Euromonitor International.
“There also is a notable increase in the preference for sustainable packaging, which is further supported by Germany’s world-leading deposit return system (DRS), which boasts a 98% return rate for eligible single-use drink containers,” said Faustina.
Nevertheless, while metal cans are favoured for tomato pastes, purées, soups, canned tuna, seasonal chocolates and boxed assortments – with consumers perceiving these products as higher quality when packaged in metal – there also are categories where metal tins are declining. According to Euromonitor International, in sweet spreads, the lack of ease of use compared to lighter pack types like PET bottles or thin-wall plastic containers, has caused demand to decrease.
“Similarly, metal cans are falling out of favour for baby milk formula due to their weight, which does not support on-the-go consumption, and in the beverage industry, aluminium coffee pods are declining due to their high energy consumption and significant waste generation,” explained Faustina.
Nonetheless, Germany has a strong metal packaging industry. The German Association of Metal Packaging (VMV – Verband Metallverpackungen) includes around 55 companies with over 11,000 employees.
In August 2023, Crown Holdings announced the acquisition of Helvetia Packaging AG, a beverage can and end manufacturing facility in Saarlouis, Germany, to expand Crown’s European beverage can platform to Germany with approximately one billion units of annual can capacity.
Ball Packaging Europe also operates a beverage packaging plant at Gelsenkirchen, on the border with the Netherlands. However, bottlenecks in the supply chain and scarcity of raw materials have dampened the industry. Although India-based market researcher, Modor Intelligence, found that most metal and steel producers were able to pass on the higher raw material prices to their buyers, Ardagh Metal Packaging Germany stopped production of steel cans in late 2023 in its plant in Weißenthurm, to fully shift to production of aluminium cans there. The Ardagh Group also operates Germany-based metal packaging production plants in Braunschweig and Haβloch.
According to local German-language media, this withdrawal from steel can production is a reaction to the global situation that makes the processing of steel unprofitable, as steel is now around 50% more expensive than before the Russian attack on Ukraine, with rising energy prices especially increasing the production costs of steel cans.
As for technology trends in Germany, Euromonitor International stressed that Switzerland-based food major, Nestlé, is piloting an innovative reusable stainless-steel container for its Nesquik cocoa brand, in collaboration with Frankfurt, Germany-based startup, Circolution, which works with companies to find reusable solutions to packaging. Their stainless-steel packaging initiative, Anita in Steel, which debuted in Germany last February (2023), is integrated into the country’s deposit return scheme, the DPG Deutsche Pfandsystem.
Circolution rents the containers to Nestlé for a packaging-as-a-service fee and tends to the cleaning, inspection and transport. The company also provides data to Nestlé for measuring the environmental impact of the products.
A Circolution note claims that if the stainless- steel cup is filled, sold and washed about five times, its ecological impact is the same as that of comparable, disposable glass packaging. However, the stainless-steel cup can go through the reusable cycle another 75 times, eliminating the need for 75 disposable glass packages. In this way, Anita in Steel can save approximately 36 kg of glass over 80 lifecycles.
“Circolution uses reusable packaging wherever it makes sense – but only then. We have compared the ecological impact of our reusable packaging with the impact of relevant comparative packaging, eg made of glass and plastic,” said the Circolution note.
Germany’s extremely high return rate for cans is attributable due to Germany having a fixed deposit of EUR€0.25 (US$0.27) for single- use containers and between €0.08
$0.08) and €0.15 ($0.16) for reusable bottles. That money is paid when customers return the bottles to machines in grocery stores. Since the introduction of the deposit system in 2003, almost every can has found its way back into the cycle. The littering rate of beverage cans is 0.03%, according to the Gesellschaft für Verpackungsmarktforschung (GVM) (Society for Packaging Market Research).
Partly inspired by Germany’s successful DRS system, the European Parliament approved a new European Union (EU) packaging and packaging waste regulation in April 2024, to prevent packaging waste, ensure all packaging is recyclable by 2030, and increase recycled plastic use. Pending formal approval by the European Council of Ministers, the law says by January 2029, EU member states must introduce deposit return schemes for all single-use plastics and metal beverage containers.
However, the FGD is unhappy with the regulation’s clauses laying down targets for reusing packaging of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages (except milk, wine, flavoured wine, spirits, etc), transport and sales packaging and outer packaging. Specifically, from 1 January 2030, the final distributor selling packaged alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages shall ensure that at least 10% of those products are sold in reusable packaging, within a system for re-use. From 1 January 2040, these sellers shall ensure that at least 40% of those products are made available in reusable packaging within a system for re-use.
“We are strictly against unfounded and blanket support for reusable containers, which reflects that the political discourse on circular value creation in the packaging industry is shaped by the assumption that reusable is automatically more sustainable than disposable,” said FGD’s CEO, Brandenburg.
He continued, “In light of current scientific findings, such a [rule] is not justified, as both systems have ecological advantages depending on the application scenario. In this context, it is also important to question whether a beverage can still fit into the ‘waste’ category – most cans are returned to the material cycle and the material can then be reused almost infinitely.”
Brandenburg called for the development of “a more integrated political approach” to the circular economy that recognises the use of recycled materials alone often saves significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions: “Therefore, there must be standards for companies on how emissions saved through circular strategies such as recycling can be accounted for and positively credited,” he said.
He added that beverage cans’ low transport volume and weight compared to reusable glass bottles are also major ecological advantages. He argued that beverage cans are more compact than bottles and so more litres fit on a truck, reducing transport emissions. Moreover, post-use, the transport of pressed empty cans is comparatively climate-efficient given more can be carried together than discarded glass or plastic bottles.
Cans used in Germany and elsewhere are also getting lighter, said Brandenburg: “Today, a 0.33- litre beverage can weighs an average of just 12 grams, a 0.5 litre can around 15 grams. Around 45% less material and therefore fewer emissions are required for production than in the early 1980s,” Brandenburg explained.
Moreover, stressing the value of recycling, he said, “The recycling process causes only six per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions that arise when manufacturing from primary raw materials. We are also working hard to further increase the proportion of secondary raw materials in recycling, such as plastic heat shrink sleeves, which also has a positive effect on the carbon footprint.”
A spokesman for the GreenDot Group, the company that created Germany’s Der Grüne Punkt, a nationwide take-back system for household packaging, predicted that the new EU waste regulation will encourage changes to the packaging designs, so that the packaging becomes easier to recycle.
“It is going to be easier for steel-based packaging than for aluminium-based packaging, given that the latter usually involves more composite materials that are difficult to separate,” the spokesman said, although beverage aluminium-based cans are largely made of a single material. The FGD stressed that in Germany, a considerable proportion of aluminium cans are returned unmixed via the deposit system, making these packs highly efficient to recycle.
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