Did you know that aluminum is a good choice for soft drink cans?

Aluminum beverage cans bring great convenience to consumers due to their lightness, easy transportation and fast cooling speed. At the same time, they have become a sustainable beverage giant such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle because of their high recovery rates. An important option, Ball Corporation - a US metal packaging supplier is also piloting an aluminum beverage cup project this year to reduce pollution from disposable plastic products.

According to the European Aluminum Association's Life Cycle Analysis (LCAs), aluminum beverage cans have a high recovery rate and are at the same level of sustainability as refillable glass beverage bottles. If the distribution line is more than 200 kilometers long, aluminum cans can even have advantages over larger, heavier glass containers. Aluminum can sealing machine plays an important role in manufacturing process. In addition, the used aluminum cans can be easily crushed and transported, and their recycling and use reduce 95% of energy and greenhouse gas emissions compared to primary aluminum. If the quality and quantity of aluminum material provided by the recycling system is not problematic, the cycle from the original tank to the recycling tank is not a problem.

However, the recovery success rate of aluminum beverage cans varies significantly between some countries. For example, Germany and Norway have recovery rates of 99% and 98%, while Romania and Hungary have recovery rates of 36% and 38%, respectively. According to Maarten Labberton, director of the Packaging Group of the European Aluminum Association, the main reason for the difference in recycling rates between the European Union and the European Free Trade Association countries is the quality of their respective collection and classification systems.

 "In Germany, the DRS (deposit return) system has produced excellent results, while in Romania, there is a large amount of informal recycling that has to be handled without official statistics. In other countries where recycling systems are not ideal, a large part of the waste is also Landfill. However, in most countries through well-functioning collection and sorting systems, for example, PMD system bins / bags marked with 'yellow or blue' (P = plastic, M = metal, D = beverage carton), Showing satisfactory results. "

Regardless of color design and shape, all aluminum cans are recyclable. In addition, recycling aluminum reduces energy consumption by 95% compared to the production of aluminum from raw materials and the greenhouse gas produced by the recycling process only accounts for 5% of the production of raw aluminum cans. Drink canning machines must be improved to reduce the environment pollution during manufacturing process.

In order to maximize the recovery rate of aluminum cans, different but effective collection and classification systems need to be combined and used, and cooperation between metal packaging manufacturers is indispensable.