Recycling, Recovery and Recyclability of Aluminium Foil Based Packaging

 

Clarity is given in the EU Directive on Waste (2008/98/EC) introducing recovery as umbrella term embracing recycling and energy recovery:

"Recovery means any operation the principal result of which is waste serving a useful purpose

by replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used to fulfil a particular function, or waste being prepared to fulfil that function, in the plant or in the wider economy".

"Recycling means any recovery operation through which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances

whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations".

The Packaging & Packaging Waste P&PW Directive (94/62/EC) defines:

"Recycling shall mean the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes including organic recycling but excluding energy recovery".

 

In principle recycling returns valuable materials out of a product after use. This helps to diminish the demand for virgin materials from nature and also minimizes the amount of waste.Another argument for recycling is the independence of natural resources which is rather important for those economies which have limited access to them.

Recycling may also create less impact than primary production to give a net benefit for the environment. This is in particular true for the recycling of aluminium which needs 95% less energy compared with primary production.Recycling maintains the material and its properties. When material is processed in incinerators and the released energy is used, this is referred to as Energy Recovery. In Europe this energy is generally used for producing heat and / or electricity for local households.

Thereby recycling and also energy recovery contribute to a sustainable development by saving resources.

Especially for materials being resource intensive in primary production, recycling is important to close material loops and increase overall efficiencies.

 

Recovery of packaging embracing recycling and energy recovery is a legal target which is defined in the P&PW Directive (94/62/EC). The targets set down in the directive apply to all types of packaging (consumer, industrial, transport, etc.). The directive states that in all EC countries The Member States must introduce systems for the return and/or collection of used packaging to attain targets as: "At least 60% of packaging by weight must be recovered or incinerated at waste incineration plants with energy recovery; at least 55% and no more than 80% must be recycled." Individual material-specific recycling targets are given with 60% by weight for glass, paper and board; 50% by weight for metals; 22.5% by weight for plastics and 15% by weight for wood".

On a country level targets may be higher and more specific for materials.

In the Essential Requirements of the P&PW Directive (94/62/EC) production related provisions include:

"Minimisation of packaging volume and weight, consistent with the level necessary for safety, hygiene and acceptance by the consumer, design and use of packaging in a manner that permits its reuse and recovery."

 

Aluminium is fully recyclable, endlessly, without any loss of quality.

The recycling process for aluminium requires 95% less energy compared to the primary production which also corresponds to enormous emission savings. Aluminium recycling takes place as aluminium scrap is a valuable raw material for a variety of applications.

Today approximately 75% of all the aluminium ever produced is still in productive use today , creating a virtual aluminium pool which is fed out of short term applications (e.g. packaging) and long term applications (e.g. buildings).

Due to the relatively high scrap value of aluminium a considerable part of its collection and sorting cost can be off-set.

However, this doesn't mean that aluminium is a scarce material as aluminium is the most abundant metallic element in the earth's crust (over 7% by weight) and the third most abundant of all elements (after oxygen and silicon), with enough economically available reserves to supply at least another 300 years of current demand.

 

For aluminium packaging (packaging with aluminium dominant material including beverage cans), the estimated average recycling rate in Europe is above 50%. The amount of aluminium packaging effectively recycled greatly depends upon individual national requirements, the specific application, and the efficiency of the collection schemes; therefore national rates vary from 30% to 80% or more across Europe.Aluminium packaging is fully recyclable and is in principle used for the production of new packaging applications or other valuable aluminium products such as castings for the automotive industry or for building products.

In the cases when aluminium packaging is not collected for recycling and the material is being processed in incinerators during which part of, in particular the thin and laminated foil fraction is oxidised and releases energy, which can be recovered. On top, the remaining non-oxidised fraction can be collected from the bottom ashes of the incinerator and subsequently used for recycling purposes. For thin foil applications like laminates, energy recovery from advanced incineration plants is a viable option, knowing that the absolute volume of aluminium in the pack is generally low. The recoverable amount of energy is comparable to the heating value of hard coal.

 

Many materials can be composed from both virgin and recycled raw materials. The recycled content is the fraction of recycled material in the final material normally given as a percentage. In case of metals the term recycled metal content is used (RMC).

The labelling standard - ISO 14021 - states that "recycled content and its associated terms shall be interpreted as proportion, by mass, of recycled material in a product or packaging. Only pre-consumer and post-consumer materials shall be considered as recycled content."

This provision is subject to interpretation and can be misunderstood depending on the definition of pre-consumer materials.

Pre-consumer materials are defined as those recycled from the solid waste stream during manufacturing processes. Consequently this does not include materials and by-products generated by and commonly reused in the original manufacturing process. Industrial scrap, rework, and regrind, which are collected in-plant and re-introduced in the original production process cannot carry a "recycled" claim.

 

A higher recycled metal content (RMC) in a given aluminium application is in general not meaningful as environmental indicator, as:

• It only shows how much recycled material has been taken from the market of recycled metals and not how much has been put onto this market generating especially in the case of aluminium high environmental benefits.

• There are no environmental benefits in directing recycled aluminium towards targeted market applicationswhile it is already more efficiently recycled into other demanding markets. This may even create market distortions and additional environmental inefficiencies. For example, it may lead to transportation over longer distances resulting in adverse environmental impacts.

• The continued growth of the aluminium market and the fact that most aluminium products have a fairly long lifetime (buildings, airplanes, automotive, etc.) means it is not possible to achieve a high recycled metal content for all new aluminium products, simply because the available quantity of used aluminium falls considerably short of total demand.

 

 

The benefits of aluminium recycling are huge as recycling of aluminium needs 95% less energy compared with its primary production, with the corresponding savings in emissions. This can be quantified and credited in a life cycle analysis context by using the end-of-life recycling rate.

Therefore the recycling rate is essential to calculate and visualize the environmental performance of aluminium.

 

It is impossible to distinguish how often aluminium has been recycled; therefore a RMC cannot be measured in terms of a metallurgical analysis. An attempt to do so is similar to trying to determine if water in a lake stems from rivers or from rain. Therefore a RMC can be determined only with knowledge about the different converging material flows in refining or re-melting.

Given the provisions in labelling standards as cited above, a "recycled content" is ambiguous as the definition of "pre-consumer material" can be interpreted differently. Only in specific situations, where e.g. a packaging application is recycled into the same packaging application again can a RMC be unambiguously identified.