Aligned with its Twentyby30 program objectives to improve the circular economy, Crown Holdings has announced its commitment to work with industry partners to achieve ambitious new global recycling rates goals for aluminium beverage cans. 

Designed to be completed by 2030, the targets focus on the inherent recyclability of metal to advance Crown’s sustainability efforts and commitments to foster a more responsible industry.

The new targets are connected to individual regions where Crown maintains operations and include:

• In the Americas:
  • United States: Lifting the current 45% average to achieve ambitious milestones of 70% by 2030, 80% by 2040 and 90% by 2050.
  • Mexico: Maintaining >90% through 2030 and working with industry partners to establish country-wide recycling rates.
  • Brazil: Maintaining >97% through 2030.
• In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA): Reaching 80% in the countries in which we operate by working with industry partners. 
• In Asia Pacific: Establishing country-wide 2030 recycling rates in the three major markets in which we operate (Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam) by the end of 2025.

Today, aluminium cans stand as the only beverage packaging format capable of a 60-day turnaround from point of consumption to appearing back on the shelf. 

Metal is also an infinitely recyclable, permanent material that never loses its properties, helping to minimise resource consumption and waste.

To raise recycling rates for aluminium cans, Crown will work in tandem with industry partners to help support improvements to public and private recycling access, encourage consumer education on the importance of recycling used beverage cans (UBCs), help fund can capture technologies to improve recycling centre sorting processes and support impactful recycling policies. 

To date, Crown has already made significant strides in these areas, including helping to fund five grants awarded to facilities in the United States—a contribution that will result in an additional 71 million UBCs being recycled annually.

“The beverage can already stands strong as the most recycled drinks package in the world,” said John Rost, Ph.D., Vice President, Global Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs at Crown. 

“Still, there is more work to be done to enable us to capture and reuse as much aluminium as possible. Our efforts will help ensure even more UBCs, which are the most valuable commodity in the recycling system, will be recovered successfully and kept from landfill.”