15 Mar 2022 --- Research commissioned by the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) into the recycling of three beverage container materials – aluminum, glass and plastic (PET) – has suggested that aluminum cans best support a circular economy. The study found that aluminum cans have a superior collection rate to glass and plastic bottles, which are more likely to end up in landfills. In addition, PET and glass bottles are three times more likely to be lost in the recycling system once collected than aluminum cans.The research entails the “first comprehensive public study” to analyze the recycling value chain for single-use beverage containers in five key markets.Marlen Bertram, IAI’s director for Scenarios & Forecasts, tells PackagingInsights: “Aluminum cans outperform PET and glass bottles at all levels of the recycling systems, including collection, in all regions together but also in each region separately.” The data shows that today more than 70% of the material used in aluminum cans is recycled into new products – almost double that of glass (34%) and plastic (40%). On behalf of the IAI, Eunomia Research and Consulting studied data in five regions: Brazil, China, Europe, Japan and the US. It looked at the end-of-life processing losses for aluminum cans, glass bottles and PET bottles.The study also looked at the collection, sorting, reprocessing and thermal processing, closed-loop recycling and open-loop recycling.
