Steel packaging recycling rates confirmed

More than 70 per cent of steel packaging in Europe was recycled in 2010, the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging (APEAL) has confirmed.

The association has released the latest recycling figures for post-consumer steel packaging scrap. They reveal that 71% of steel packaging in Europe was recycled. These figures have been reviewed and confirmed independently by UK-based energy and waste specialist consultancy, Eunomia.

The results are among the first 2010 figures to be released within the packaging materials industry. By compiling and releasing figures in advance of other materials, Apeal says the steel packaging industry is demonstrating a solid conviction of the importance of recycling, amid confidence that steel is still the most recycled packaging material in Europe, where plastic, beverage cartons and glass demonstrate rates of 30%, 34% and 68% respectively (according to latest available data).

However, the steel packaging industry is committed to increasing recycling rates even further, focusing on metal packaging ‘s long term objective of achieving in Europe a 80% recycling rate and zero metal waste to landfill by 2020 – far higher than current EU or national targets. Germany achieved a rate of 93.8% this year, and has not dropped below a 90% recycling rate since 1997.

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