11 March 2019

We welcome the Green Alliance report ‘Closing the loop: Four steps towards 100% aluminium packaging recycling’; it reconfirms the conclusions of the modelling that Resource Futures conducted on our behalf, which demonstrated that aluminium packaging could achieve high recycling rates under a reformed packaging system.

The report emphasises the importance of separating clean aluminium packaging as early as possible in the recycling process in order to maximise the value, something that we have always championed. However, metal packaging is unique in that if it does remain in the residual waste stream, it can, and will increasingly, be captured through incinerator bottom ash.

Aluminium is the perfect material for the circular economy. We recognise an all-in DRS could deliver high recycling rates for drinks cans; like others, we are considering the options in the consultations, in order to identify the most cost-effective and environmentally beneficial methods of maximising the recycling potential of ALL aluminium packaging.

We have a rare chance to overhaul England’s recycling and waste system in order to ensure that materials are captured, recycled and reprocessed in the most effective way possible. Detailed research and full impact assessments are critical, and this report contributes to that research.

Read the full Green Alliance report here.