German Tinplate Recycling Rate Breaks Record

The German company ThyssenKrupp says that the Society for Packaging Research (SPR) reports that the tinplate steel recycling rate in Germany reached 93.9 percent in 2011. According to SPR’s most recent figures, 2011’s recycling level topped Germany’s previous tinplate steel recycling record, reached in 2008, by 0.03 percent.

For 2011, ThyssenKrupp says that a total of 450,400 tons of tinplate was recovered to make new steel products; a total of 479,800 metric tons of tinplate was produced in Germany in 2011.

In a release, Ulrich Roeske, chairman of ThyssenKrupp Rasselstein, says, “Virtually nothing is lost from tinplate packaging after use. The material is practically all recycling content that - in contrast to many other packaging materials - can be recycled into new steel products as often as you like without any loss in quality. But packaging steel is not top of the recycling league by quantity alone: it is also unrivaled as a ‘permanent material’ in that it is restored completely to its original quality.”

According to the company, ThyssenKrupp Rasselstein is Germany’s only tinplate producer. Additionally, ThyssenKrupp Rasselstein is the only German manufacturer of packaging steel that has its own collection operation, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Weißblech Recycling mbH (DWR). The collection of industry-generated steel packaging is covered by the not-for-profit company Kreislaufsystem Blechverpackungen Stahl GmbH (KBS), which is supported by ThyssenKrupp Rasselstein and ensures that the material is fully returned to production as a secondary raw material.