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Comparison of Aluminum Beverage Can Recycling in Deposit States and Non-Deposit States

The Container Recycling Institute estimates that, on average, aluminum cans are recycled at a rate of 46 percent in non-deposit states.

ASSUMPTIONS:

1. Population figures:
   
   U.S. = 270 million
   Deposit States = 77 million
   Non-Deposit States = 193 million

2. Per capita consumption of aluminum beverage cans is 375 in all states. (There is no public data available for the volume of aluminum beverage cans sold on a state-by-state basis.)

3. Recycling rate for aluminum beverage cans in deposit states is 80 percent. (This conservative estimate includes cans recovered through the deposit system and through curbside recycling programs which serve 63 percent of the population in the deposit states.)

4. The national recycling rate in 1998 was 55 percent and the number of aluminum beverage cans recycled was 56 billion. The 7.9 billion scrap cans imported from abroad are not included in the volume of 'domestic' cans recycled.

5. Deposit states: California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont and the city of Columbia, MO. (Delaware, a deposit state, is excluded because aluminum beverage cans are exempted from the deposit law.)

NOTE: Numbers may not add up due to rounding.

Container Recycling Institute March 1999