A report from USA has pointed out that aluminum cans stand out by comparison with all other materials in packaging industry in every measure of sustainability.
According to the report commissioned by the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) and the Aluminum Association (AA), the report demonstrates that aluminum cans are more widely to be recycled, with higher scrap value compared with other kinds of recycled products of all other substrates.
“We are incredibly proud of our industry-leading sustainability metrics but also want to make sure that every can counts,” said the Aluminum Association president and chief executive officer Tom Dobbins. “Unlike most recycling, a used aluminum is typically recycled directly into a new can – process which can happen over and over again.”
The Aluminum Can Advantage report’s compilers studied four key metrics:
▪Consumer recycling rate, which measures the amount of aluminum can scrap as a per centage of cans available for recycling. The metal accounts for 46%, but the glass just accounts for 37% and the PET accounts for 21%.
▪ Industry recycling rate, a measure of the amount of used metal that’s recycled by American aluminum manufacturers. The report pointed out that about an average of 56% for metal containers. Besides, there was no relevant comparable figures for PET bottles or glass bottles.
▪ Recycled content, a calculation of the proportion of post-consumer versus raw material used in packaging. The metal accounts for 73%, and the glass accounts for less than half that at 23%, while the PET just accounts for 6%.
▪ Value of recycled material, in which scrap aluminum was valued at US$1,210 per ton versus minus-$21 for glass and $237 for PET.
Apart from that, the report also indicated that there are other ways of sustainability measures, for example, lower life cycle greenhouse gas emissions for filled cans.
Post time: May-17-2022
