New recycling record for Europe’s steel packaging

European Union – Latest figures released by the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging (APEAL) indicate that the continent’s steel packaging recycling rate increased by two percentage points in 2009 to exceed 72%.

Belgium is the European champion for the ninth consecutive year with an outstanding 98% recycling rate, followed by Germany and the Netherlands with more than 87%; these countries are said to benefit from particularly efficient national kerbside collection systems.

The same year also brought noticeable increases in recycling rates among other European countries. For example, Poland achieved an increase of 20 percentage points in its steel packaging recycling rate – a performance which can be attributed substantially to the introduction of ferro-magnetic sorting operations at several of its waste sorting facilities in 2009.

According to Brussels-based APEAL, the overall increase means that, in terms of recycling rates, steel retains its position far ahead of other packaging materials such as plastics, beverage cartons and glass with their rates of, respectively, 30%, 34% and 67%.