Recycling of steel at all-time high of 76 per cent
Recycling of packaging made from steel, like crown caps and RingCrown caps, in Europe has reached a new high of 76 per cent. As recently announced by the Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging, APEAL**.
The data from 2014, establishes steel as Europe’s most recycled packaging material. Some benefits of using steel to make bottle caps are:
- Steel is easily and economically recovered from waste streams due to magnetic properties.
- Steel is a permanent material so recycles forever without loss of quality.
(Image source: APEAL**)
Steel’s unique strength, formability and durability offer numerous benefits for the manufacturing of bottle caps this in addition to being the most recycled packaging material.
With the above in mind it can be asked, how much recycled steel is in a crown cap?
Recycling is an integral part of steel production globally and steel scrap is a necessary component in the production of steel. In Europe demand for steel scrap currently outstrips supply. At the same time, steel is a permanent material that can be infinitely recycled without loss of quality so steel makers re-melt & recycle constantly. There being no structural difference between new and secondary steel there is no known technique to determine the level of recycled content in finished steel, like tin plated steel used for making crown caps.
So how much recycled steel is in a crown cap? It is possible to say crown caps contain a significant proportion of recycled steel. Exactly how much is not known and varies by steel producer and by batch.
**Source: http://www.apeal.org/news/time-high-steel-packaging-recycling-rate-europe/ dated: 06.07.2016.