The worldwide recycling performance of aluminium beverage cans has been confirmed to lead among major drink-container formats, according to a new global dataset released by the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) and independent consultancy Eunomia.

The report, covering data for 2025 and representing approximately 90 % of the global market for aluminium cans, shows that around 75.6% of aluminium beverage cans placed on the market globally were collected for recycling, and 74.8% were ultimately recycled. 

For comparison, glass beverage bottles achieve a collection rate of 44.5% and a recycling rate of 41.9%, while PET beverage bottles are collected at 61.3% but only 47.0% are ultimately recycled. 

The authors of the study highlight that aluminium cans outperform the other formats in part because of much lower loss rates between collection and recycling: only 1.0% for aluminium cans, compared with 5.8% for glass and 23.4% for PET bottles. 

The dataset is part of a wider tracking project by the Global Beverage Can Circularity Alliance (GBCCA) which has set a global recovery target of 80 % for used beverage cans by 2030 and “close to 100 %” by 2050.