Ceepackaging

Environment

Recycling an increasing success

For the first time, recycling data gathered by APEAL covers 30 countries, namely the EU-25 as well as
Romania, Bulgaria, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey and provides a full picture of the recycling
performance of steel packaging. Growing recycling rates are being achieved throughout Europe with
recycling rates reaching up to 92% in Belgium.
Remarkable progress in recycling was made in the Baltic States, Poland and Slovakia (from +37% in
Slovakia to +120% in Lithuania). Other countries which improved their recycled tonnage include the
UK & Denmark (between 10% and 15% increase), Spain, Finland and Italy (between 5% and 10%
increase) as well as Austria, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland and Hungary which increased
their recycling performance by up to 5%. As far as Turkey is concerned, a recycling rate of 34% was
achieved in 2005 for metal packaging, exceeding the 30% recycling target imposed by law.
A key factor contributing to these high recycling rates is the adaptability of steel to a variety of
collection systems ranging from mixed household waste to multi-material, door-to-door collection.
Such systems, which are generally integrated into the waste management system for a locality, are
now commonplace in Europe and are rapidly being implemented in Eastern and Central Europe.
Importantly, they have the advantage that they collect all types of household steel packaging (food
cans, drinks cans, aerosols, etc.), whereas some systems, notably deposit systems, are restricted to
beverage containers.
Further improvements in recycling can be expected in Central & Eastern Europe driven by the ongoing
development of the collection and recycling infrastructure as well as the phased EU recycling
targets until 2015.
Philippe Wolper, managing director of APEAL, comments: “In order to achieve a recycling society, EU
laws should remain unequivocal about the environmental benefits of recycling and continue to support
the efforts made by our industry to achieve high recycling performance. Ambiguous messages about
the value of recycling could pave the way for Member States to promote economic instruments which
totally disregard the contribution of highly recycled packaging materials towards the sustainable use of
resources. In terms of environmental policy, it is of paramount importance that the Waste Framework
Directive, which is currently being revised, continues to support recycling as an environmentally
efficient recovery option with at least the same priority as reuse.”