A total of 83 500 tonnes of the 93 800 tonnes used, or 89%, was recycled in that year.
“The high rates of recycling show that we have an excellently-functioning package recycling system in Germany,” says Hans-Jürgen Schmidt, managing director of German Aluminium Packaging Recycling (DAVR). This is mostly due, he says, to the yellow bin system as well as modern technologies such as eddy-current separators. And he adds: “The potential is there for widening the yellow bin system to include other used products made of metal.”
Based on this latest recycling rate update, DAVR estimates that annual savings in greenhouse gas emissions amount to more than 390 000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents.
Given this successful completion of the materials cycle, “it is appropriate that the surpassing of recycling targets in packaging regulations are fully accounted for in current life-cycle assessments for packaging,” comments Christian Wellner, executive director of Germany's Aluminium Industry Association (GDA).