Recycle aluminum: Italy is first in Europe

When it comes to recycling and separate collection, we always keep in mind that every gesture made by the individual, even the smallest, proves to be useful. The commitment we put into carefully separating waste and the constancy with which we place it in the appropriate containers contribute significantly to triggering a virtuous circle essential for the consolidation of a circular economy that is truly capable of reducing the pressure on environment and to protect raw materials.

He knows it well CIAL, the Consortium born in 1997 with the aim of launching the recovery and consequential recycling of aluminum packaging that has reached the end of its life cycle and comes from separate collection carried out by individual Municipalities. A non-profit reality that brings together the protagonists of the entire industrial chain: from raw material producers to packaging manufacturers up to end users, recovery and recyclers. Thanks to the combined action of Municipalities, environmental operators in the collection and treatment of waste, together with the essential role of citizens, the Consortium guarantees record results. It is no coincidence that the Italian aluminum collection and recovery system represents an excellence.

With a recycling rate average, over the past five years, of 70% of aluminum packaging Italy has not only achieved and exceeded its 2030 objectives for some time, but also ranks first in Europe. While, for beverage cans alone, the current recycling rate, equal to 91.6% in 2022, is far higher than the European average which is currently 73%. In practice: in Italy, compared to a per capita consumption of 36 cans per year, 33 have been recycled.

Not just cans, though. For years, our country has focused on the collection and recovery of all types of aluminum packaging, not just the more profitable and easy to collect ones, as happens in other countries. After the cans, which were already collected in Italy almost thirty years ago, with the birth of Conai the collections have been extended to all the main packaging materials and to all the packaging components. In the case of aluminium, therefore, in addition to cans, also tins, cans, tubes, trays, thin foil, up to the smallest accessories such as caps, closures, blister packs and coffee capsules.

Extraordinary results and which give us hope in the constant progress of the circular economy, if we only look at the fact that 75% of the aluminum that has always been produced is still in circulation. Recycling aluminum is fundamental from an environmental and strategic point of view for the industry thanks to the enormous benefit that derives from it in terms of energy savings. In fact, making new aluminum starting from scrap guarantees a saving of 95% of the energy necessary to produce it starting from bauxite, the mineral from which it is obtained. Furthermore, the characteristics of the metal, recycling after recycling, in an endless cycle, remain unchanged, guaranteeing the best possible performance in all the applications in which it is used. Aluminum is therefore, to all intents and purposes, a durable or permanent material.

But it’s not just a matter of recyclability. According to the data collected by CIAL to trace the evolutionary trend of aluminum packaging over the last twenty years, in terms of prevention and, therefore, of reduction of weight and thickness of the various types of packaging, it is demonstrated, in fact, how the companies of the supply chain, through theeco-design of the packing and theeco-efficiency of production processes, managed to save on average around 5,350 tons of material every year (the equivalent of 51,000 car bodies) for a total of 107,000 tonnes, equal to an overall reduction of 936,000 tonnes of CO₂.

Finally, always with reference to prevention, it should be remembered that aluminum is the material that more than any other offers an excellent barrier to light, bacteria, air, oxygen and vapour. It goes without saying that, when it is used as food packaging, it proves to be an extraordinary ally for the conservation of the contained product, minimizing consequentially waste and the production of organic waste. Prevention, collection and recycling, all essential elements to promote and guide the new models of socio-economic development of the Green Economy.