Recycling of aluminium packaging is now at 89% in Germany

20 January 2014

Already at high level, the recycling of aluminium packaging in Germany has risen even more and reached a new peak for the year 2012.

Already at high level, the recycling of aluminium packaging in Germany has risen even more and reached a new peak for the year 2012. Of the 93,800 tonnes of aluminium packaging used in the market in that year, 83,500 tonnes of the material has been recycled. This is the equivalent of an 89 per cent rate of recycling, as ascertained in a current study by the Mainz-based GVM - Gesellschaft für Verpackungsmarktforschung mbH.

The high rates of recycling show that we have an excellently functioning package recycling system in Germany. The “yellow bin” recycling system has established itself and is successful. Modern separation technologies such as efficient eddy current separators are in widespread use. The potential is there for widening this system as so-called recycling bin to include other used products made of metal,” said Hans-Jürgen Schmidt, Managing Director of Deutsche Aluminium Verpackung Recycling GmbH (DAVR) in Grevenbroich, commenting on the positive recycling rates.

Every year GVM ascertains the volume and the recycling rates of package waste in Germany, also on behalf of the Federal Ministry of the Environment (UBA) in Berlin. The quantities recycled in the different dual systems and the return of used packaging by way of other organizations and methods of collection are taken into account.

Aluminium recycling makes it possible to save up to 95 per cent of the energy that would have been required for primary production, so valuable raw materials and resources can be saved. The contribution to climate protection derived from the recycling of the metal from packaging is also considerable. Based on the rates of recycling which have now been achieved, according to calculations of DAVR annual savings of greenhouse gases amount to more than 390,000 tonnes of so-called CO2 equivalents. Efforts for collection, preparation and recycling, as well as rates of metal loss were taken into account. This corresponds to the total fuel consumption of more than 13,000 in 2013 newly registered cars on Germany's roads over their entire life only from the recycling of used aluminium packaging. These calculations are based on consumption data of the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) and life cycle assessment data for aluminium updated in 2013.