PAPER RECYCLING CONFERENCE: The ABCs of UBCs.

The aluminum industry continues to be dismayed that the recycling rate for aluminum used beverage containers (UBCs) is falling in the U.S., and would be happy to see more scrap companies get involved with the commodity.

Last year in the U.S., $700 million worth of aluminum UBCs were not recycled, according to Tom Stengel, vice president - marketing and operations, Anheuser-Busch Recycling Corp., St. Louis. Stengel was one of three speakers who addressed attendees during a session entitled “UBC Recycling: A Market Opportunity,” at the Paper Recycling Conference & Trade Show in Chicago in late June.

Stengel added that of that $700 million value, some $208 million would have been profit headed to the bottom line of the recycling companies able to procure those UBCs.

Despite the lure of potential profits, both Stengel and fellow speaker Brenda Pulley, vice president - corporate and government affairs, Alcan Aluminum Corp., Cleveland, acknowledged that the UBC recycling rate is falling and that methods must be found to bring the rate back up.

“Yes, we make primary aluminum . . . but UBCs are a greatly supply metal for us,” said Pulley. The company’s Berea, Ky., facility is the largest single melting destination for UBCs in North America. (See “The Fiery UBC Furnace,” Dec. 2001 Recycling Today.)

Pulley asked paper recyclers in attendance to consider harvesting UBCs from offices and other workplaces on the same commercial routes they run to pick up secondary fiber. “It’s now more important than ever . . . to try and prevent the $700 million in ‘buried treasure.’”

Recycler Joel Litman, president of Texas Recycling/Surplus Inc., Dallas, spoke as one paper recycler who is also in the UBC recycling business. Litman’s company has been recycling UBCs along with paper for 15 years. “Whatever you’re doing now, the foundation is already in place to handle UBCs,” Litman told attendees.

Litman said UBCs are “an easy fit” for paper recyclers who already own a baler. While acknowledging that the pop and beer cans can be “a little messy,” Litman also noted that dealing with them can be profitable. “UBCs have become a steady part of our operation,” said the Texas recycler.

While UBCs generated at residences are commonly collected by curbside programs, if recycling companies can help set up programs at workplaces, recreational areas and special events, such actions could help bring the UBC rate back to the 65 percent rate it was at in the mid-1990s.