New record recycling rate for cans
The overall recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans in the EU 27 + EFTA countries increased by 1.5% points to a new record level of 69.5% (70%) in 2012. (Sources: Normalisation method and data Environmental Footprints, EAA Environmental Profile Report_ April 2013).
When considering the collection of cans in the remaining European countries and Turkey, the result is that the metal of more than 27.5 billion cans remains in the European circular economy and is available again for the production of new aluminium products.
The collected cans represent a total amount of 390,000 tons of recycled aluminium, preventing more than 3.12 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
The European Aluminium Association (EAA) considers this result an important milestone in its path towards its voluntary recycling targets of 80% by 2020. However, Maarten Labberton, director of the EAA Packaging Group says, “These ambitious targets can only be met if significant improvements are made to the existing metal packaging and can specific collection and sorting schemes The European regulatory framework should also become more transparent and harmonised. Therefore, we urge the EU authorities to present a revised EU Circular Economy Package with ambitious but more realistic and ‘real’ recycling targets.”
EAA strongly recommends that extra investments should be made in the recycling infrastructures of the EU Member States. Labberton continues, “These funds should be used in a more ‘intelligent’ way and respect the waste management hierarchy, with a strong focus on innovative collection and sorting solutions for recycling. Landfilling of recyclable packaging waste should be phased out and for the remaining unsorted household waste fraction, incineration with energy recovery should be kept as a ‘second best’ solution, including metal recovery from the bottom ashes’’.
