‘Recycling’ means any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations.
‘Recovery’ refers to a variety of waste management operations which divert waste from final disposal (landfill), including recycling, incineration with energy recovery and composting.
APEAL collates recycling figures from on steel for packaging across Europe on an annual basis. Our latest statistics show that with a recycling rate of more than 72%, steel for packaging continues to be the leader in Europe.
Steel is an excellent performer in terms of recycling, being easily collected through a variety of systems. In addition, thanks to its natural magnetic properties, steel packaging is particularly easy and cost effective to sort for recycling. Finally, recycling is second nature for steel as recycled materials are an essential part of the steelmaking process.
Steel is unique in that it has an infinite recycling loop ‐ it can be recycled over and over again without any loss of its inherent properties. Hence, reusing steel for packaging and recycling it into new steel is a never ending process. This potential for unlimited recyclability gives steel a huge advantage in terms of sustainability.
By integrating recycled steel into the manufacturing process the industry achieves energy savings of 70% and lowers its output of CO2. Put simply, when it comes to steel for packaging production, the higher the recycling rate, the lower the CO2 emissions; as recycling goes up, so carbon emissions come down. This means that natural resources are saved for future generations and that energy use and CO2 emissions are significantly reduced.
Recycling rates for steel packaging continue to grow throughout Europe. Amongst the top six countries for recycling in 2009 were Belgium, Germany,The Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and Luxemburg, all recycling over 80% of their steel containers.