Due to its mechanical resistance, steel is preferred by industrial consumers as the packaging material for «general line» products (paints, maintenance products, chemicals, etc.). Its recognised advantages include resistance to shocks and solvents, easy storage (stackable) and recyclability.

Hugues de Taeye, in charge of light industrial packaging recycling at Recyclacier-Emballages (France), and Franz-Josef Thiele, Director of KBS - Kreislaufsystem Blechverpackungen Stahl (Germany), met with us to report on industrial steel packaging recycling in their respective countries.

The European context

Directive 94/62/EC on Packaging and Packaging Waste sets goals for recovering and recycling household, industrial and commercial packaging that are to be reached by 2001, and gives Member States considerable freedom in terms of transposing their laws and setting up systems for collecting and recycling packaging waste. This accounts for the different systems set up in Germany and France to meet specific national regulations.