Management of aluminium packaging waste in selected European countries

By the end of 2025, a minimum of 50% of aluminium packaging waste has to be recycled within the Member States of the European Union. Aluminium packaging can be recovered through different systems (separate collection, deposit refund systems, informal collection, treatment of municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash or mechanical treatment of mixed municipal solid waste). The present article analysed if the agreed targets for the recycling and reuse of aluminium packaging are reasonable and realistic. To this end, the management of aluminium packaging in 16 selected European countries, yielding results for 11 countries, were investigated. The results show that six out of 11 countries recycle at least two-thirds of the aluminium packaging from MSW and only two report very low recycling rates of 20%. The overall recycling rate reported by the different countries cannot be directly linked to the system of recovery. Only the assertion that a deposit refund system together with selective collection leads to a higher overall collection rate seems permissible. This does not necessarily lead to a higher recycling rate as other countries with similarly high recycling rates make up for it with high amounts of aluminium recovered from bottom ash treatment. A direct comparison of the recycling rates within the European Union Member States, however, is problematic for several reasons, such as data that are often differently or incorrectly assigned, incomplete or rely on estimations and assumptions. The authors therefore propose a clearer assignment of the corresponding data and more extensive mandatory reporting on losses and shares of non-packaging, imported and exported waste.