In Search of Missing UBCs

The U.S. is going from a world leader in used beverage can (UBC) recycling to an also-ran. The U.S. 2001 55.4 percent UBC recycling rate places it well behind neighboring Canada (70 percent) and distantly trailing Brazil with its 85 percent rate.

Making a presentation at the National Recycling Coalition (NRC) Annual Congress in Austin, Texas, in September, Brenda Pulley of Alcan Aluminum Corp., Cleveland, noted that the U.S. aluminum industry would be happy just to get back to U.S. recycling rates in prior years. Referring to 1992’s 68 percent rate, Pulley remarked, “We’d love to get back there.”

The company is a major consumer of UBCs in North America at its Berea, Ky., ingot-making plant. (Look for “The Fiery UBC Furnace,” Recycling Today, Dec. 2001, on the RecyclingToday.com search engine.)

Pulley mentioned a decrease of recycling awareness, the lower aluminum prices of the past 18 months, and the increased consumption of beverages away from home (and thus away from recycling bins, in many cases) as potential reasons for the decline.