Dive Temporary:
- Establishing new and up to date container deposit return methods at a state and nationwide stage is the “most impactful” resolution for elevating aluminum beverage can recycling charges, a brand new report from the Container Recycling Institute asserts.
- Recycling charges for aluminum used beverage cans have decreased in recent times, partly as a consequence of a scarcity of recycling entry, decrease participation and operational challenges at MRFs and secondary melters, the CRI report says. The nationwide recycling fee for UBCs in 2021 was 37.2%, the report says.
- CRI advocates for a mixed technique to replace current bottle invoice legal guidelines and set up new packages in quite a few states. It additionally requires establishing a nationwide container deposit legislation, which the report says would increase the nationwide restoration fee for UBCs to 85%. Such actions may kind “a excessive performing, clear recycling system,” stated Susan Collins, CRI’s president.
Dive Perception:
CRI and different organizations have been advocating for enhancements to bottle payments for years, partly to gather extra cans for home manufacturing inputs. The usconsumes greater than one-quarter of all aluminum cans worldwide, however its recycling fee is “dramatically decrease” than some peer nations, the report says.
“It’s crucial that the home aluminum can business enhance its recycled content material standing, as a result of the worldwide aluminum can business merely can not meet its sustainability targets with out such enchancment,” Collins stated.
The brand new CRI report echoes some themes in a separate report from the Aluminum Affiliation and Can Producers Institute, revealed in December, which highlighted UBC recycling fee declines due partly to lack of infrastructure enhancements, amongst different components. “There haven’t been many adjustments within the fundamentals of the U.S. recycling system,” stated Scott Breen, senior vp of sustainability at CMI, in a December interview.
CMI and AA calculated the 2023 recycling fee to be 43%, a decline from the typical of round 52% when the teams started monitoring charges in 1990. The brand new CRI report notes it calculates annual charges barely otherwise, however it agrees charges are falling.
Whereas the CMI and AA report acknowledged that each bottle payments and prolonged producer duty legal guidelines may assist enhance recycling charges, CRI’s new report considers bottle payments to be the “gold customary” for elevating UBC recycling charges.
Container deposit return methods are able to recycling better numbers of UBCs as a result of “beverage cans on deposit are dealt with and sorted otherwise than these in curbside methods,” CRI stated in a information launch in regards to the report. “Cans are stored as separate commodities all through the DRS course of, that means they aren’t combined with different supplies, leading to clear, high-quality UBCs extra more likely to be made into new containers.”
The CRI report says program enhancements within the 10 states with current bottle payments may elevate the nationwide aluminum UBC recycling fee by 3.2 share factors. Elevating deposit values from 5 to 10 cents is among the group’s longtime suggestions.
The report additionally requires implementing new legal guidelines in each state that has launched bottle invoice laws since 2021: Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey, Washington, Maryland, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Mixed, packages in these states may gather about 339,000 extra tons of aluminum beverage cans per yr, doubtlessly elevating the nationwide UBC recycling fee by 20 share factors, CRI stated.
To date in 2025, a number of states on that checklist have reintroduced bottle invoice laws, together with Texas, Washington and Maryland. Washington, D.C., has additionally launched a invoice this yr.
The report additionally recommends specializing in passing bottle invoice laws within the 10 highest-population states that don’t at the moment have container deposit legal guidelines: Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington.
Although CRI additionally advocates for a nationwide bottle invoice, specialists’ consideration is principally on state efforts, particularly as Congress and the U.S. EPA react to shifting nationwide priorities laid out by the brand new Trump administration. Even on the state stage, bottle payments are notoriously tough to cross, and a few recycling facility operators say the laws hurts MRF income.
The CRI report additionally acknowledges that some Individuals face hurdles to recycling, comparable to a scarcity of entry to curbside recycling packages. CRI says solely 55% of aluminum UBCs within the U.S. are put in curbside bins or redeemed by means of a container deposit legislation. “The remaining 45% are both trashed (and finally despatched to a landfill or incinerated) or littered,” in response to the report’s govt abstract.
CRI requires extra analysis into how effectively MRFs are capable of type and get well UBCs. CRI estimates between 25% and 33% of aluminum beverage cans are missorted at MRFs. Nevertheless it acknowledges that extra information is required, and that it’s “not conscious” of any nationwide research on aluminum losses at MRFs.
This story first appeared within the Waste Dive: Recycling publication. Join the weekly emails right here.