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Container and Packaging
Recycling UPDATE
Summer/Fall 2001 Issue

Aluminum -- Can Waste Squanders Energy,
Recycling rate hits 12-year low

WASHINGTON, DC - Aluminum cans have long been the most recycled form of beverage packaging in the United States, due to the relatively high scrap value and container deposits required in nine states. So declining recycling rates for these cans in recent years are particularly troubling, because of the energy squandered, the pollution generated, and the habitats destroyed as a result of mining raw materials to make replacement cans.

Analysis by the Container Recycling Institute shows that aluminum beverage can recycling hit a 12-year low in 2000 of 54.5 percent, when industry trade association data is adjusted to exclude imported scrap cans. Misleading reports from trade associations have masked the extent of the problem.

"Even more alarming than the declining recycling rate is the fact that Americans waste more aluminum cans today than they did ten years ago," said CRI Senior Research Associate Jennifer Gitlitz.

"Nearly half of the 100 billion aluminum beverage cans sold in the United States last year were thrown away rather than recycled," Gitlitz said.

Approximately 691,000 tons of aluminum cans were landfilled, incinerated or littered in the U.S. last year, which is 137,000 tons more than was wasted in 1990.

"The energy required to replace these cans with new cans made from virgin materials could supply the electricity needs of over 2.5 million American households for a year," Gitlitz said.

The environmental impacts are much greater from using virgin resources, particularly in terms of water quality, wildlife habitat destruction in the United States, Canada and other nations, and the production of air pollution emissions which contribute to global warming.

Despite tremendous growth in public access to curbside recycling programs nationwide, aluminum recycling is actually decreasing. CRI's research shows that in 1990, with only 2,711 curbside recycling programs serving 15 percent of the population, Americans recycled 926,000 tons of aluminum cans. In 2000, with more than 9,200 curbside programs serving about 50 percent of the population, 828,000 tons of aluminum cans were recycled, which is 98,000 fewer tons recycled than a decade ago.

"When one takes into account the

environmental and energy impacts of extracting raw materials to replace wasted cans, the aluminum can is arguably the most environmentally destructive form of consumer product packaging on the market," CRI Executive Director Pat Franklin said. "Yet, we have found that few people are really aware of the growing rate of aluminum can waste and the serious environmental consequences."

This fall, CRI will release an analysis of aluminum can recycling with a special focus on the energy and environmental impacts of wasting aluminum. "Ironically, the increase in aluminum can waste comes at a time when parts of our nation face skyrocketing electricity costs," Gitlitz said. "It's especially a problem in the Pacific Northwest, where vast amounts of hydroelectricity are used to produce approximately 40 percent of the nation's primary aluminum."