Steel Packaging Recycling Levels Climb in Europe

In the 15 countries constituting the European Union, steel package recycling rate is expected to grow at a 3.4 percent rate through 2008.

APEAL forecasts that, by the end of 2008, the recycling of steel packaging in the EU should be near 70 percent.

Two main factors support this trend: The progressive adoption into national law of the Landfill Directive will lead to a ban on landfilling unprocessed waste. This will accelerate implementation of household waste sorting and recovery infrastructure in Europe; hence recycling will increase and so will the installed Municipal Solid Waste incineration capacity, where steel is magnetically sorted before or after incineration and recycled at the steel mills.

Secondly, the new 50 percent joint recycling target of the Packaging Directive for steel and aluminum packaging which will have to be reached in 2008 by 12 EU Member States and in 2011 by Portugal, Ireland and Greece, should further boost the extension of separate collection schemes in the EU.

Although the collection and recycling of packaging in most of the 10 new EU Member States is still in its infancy, APEAL is confident that steel packaging recycling will take off in the years to come.