Three out of four aluminium cans are recycled
Three out of every four aluminium drink cans are recycled. In 2023, the global recycling rate for cans reached 75%, up from 71% in 201912. That makes cans the most recycled drink container in the world, well ahead of plastic bottles at 47% and glass at 42%1.
The figures come from a study by the consultancy Eunomia for the International Aluminium Institute, the industry’s trade association1. No government or UN body tracks can recycling globally, so the industry’s numbers are the only ones available.
Recycling saves 95% of the energy
The biggest advantage of recycling aluminium is energy. Making a tonne of new aluminium from ore takes about 186 gigajoules. Making a tonne from recycled cans takes just 8.3 gigajoules, 95.5% less2.
That's how much less energy it takes to make aluminium from recycled cans instead of from new metal
The climate savings are just as large. New aluminium causes about 15.1 tonnes of greenhouse gases per tonne of metal, while recycled aluminium causes about half a tonne2. Every can that is recycled instead of thrown away saves almost all of the energy and emissions needed to make its replacement.
From 95% in East Asia to 45% in North America
Recycling rates vary enormously around the world. East Asia and the Pacific recycle 94.6% of their cans and Latin America 94.0%. Europe manages 72.5%. North America, one of the world’s biggest can markets, lags far behind at 45.3%1.
The report does not rank the reasons. A likely part of the explanation is value: where empty cans are worth money, because people collect them to sell or because a deposit is paid back when they are returned, more of them tend to be recycled, while cans thrown out with household rubbish are more likely to end up in landfill.
Aluminium can be recycled forever
Unlike many materials, aluminium does not wear out when it is recycled. Melting it down does not change its properties, so a can can be recycled into a new can again and again2. As a result, about 75% of all the aluminium ever produced since 1888, some 1.2 billion tonnes, is still in use today2.
The cans the world uses each year, most of which could be recycled.
Where can recycling is heading
The industry has set targets of recycling 80% of cans by 2030 and close to 100% by 20501. Reaching 80% is mostly a question of the regions that lag: raising North America to European levels alone would likely recycle billions more cans a year.
The challenge is that can use is also growing fast, toward 630 billion a year by 2030, as the page on aluminium drink cans shows. A rising recycling rate on a rising number of cans can still mean more cans thrown away in total. The target that matters for the climate is not just a higher percentage, but fewer cans ending up anywhere other than a recycling plant.
The rest of what the world raises and eats is in the food section.
