A study by Innoval Technology has highlighted how can-to-can recycling of aluminium beverage cans delivers major environmental gains and advances circular economy goals.
The white paper finds that recycling used beverage cans back into new cans through dedicated remelt operations could increase melt recovery rates by 18% and cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 15% compared to mixed-alloy recycling.
Developed in partnership with Ball Corporation and the International Aluminium Institute (IAI), the paper was unveiled at last week's Cop30 event in Brazil.
Today, 23% of the aluminium beverage cans are leaked and recycled into cast aluminium components, such as engine blocks for vehicles.
However, reversing this process is not economically viable due to the fundamentally incompatible chemical composition of the two-alloy type.
To produce 1,000 kilograms of can-grade aluminium sheet from cast alloys, remelters would need to dilute the material with roughly 980 kilograms of primary aluminium to correct elevated silicon levels—making the process both resource-intensive and cost-prohibitive.
Aluminium cans already demonstrate one of the highest circularity rates of any packaging material.
Used cans are continuously recycled into new cans without quality loss, made possible by advanced alloy design, precise metallurgy, and efficient processing.
The research also shows that greater closed-loop recycling could deliver an additional 50% reduction in Greenhouse Gas emissions for aluminium cans, if 87% of recycled cans are returned to can production rather than other markets.
This would require no changes to the remelting infrastructure and represents a major opportunity for the aluminium beverage can value chain to reduce its carbon footprint.
Expanding Deposit Return Systems (DRS) across the EU and UK by 2030 is expected to improve scrap quality and enable higher recovery rates, supporting this transition.
Mike Clinch, Innoval Technology, said: “This study highlights can-to-can recycling as both a critical climate solution and an optimised engineering success. By controlling metallurgy and processing, the industry can unlock significant environmental benefits while maintaining quality.”