Growing Popularity

The aluminum can has enjoyed steady gains in popularity in the beverage packaging sector over the years, and this trend shows no signs of stopping. Coors introduced the first aluminum can in 1959. For decades, beer and soda made up most of the aluminum can market. Then, in 1997, the Red Bull energy drink arrived in an aluminum can, and energy drinks took off. Enter the craft beer movement, followed by spiked seltzer, mixed cocktails, hard cider and now wine, and that adds up to an incredible number of specialty beverages packaged in aluminum cans. Ball Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum drink cans, reports that in 2015 only 36% of all new beverage SKUs (stock keeping units) were packaged in aluminum cans. In 2019, 67% of all new beverage SKUs were packaged in aluminum cans. That’s almost a doubling of new beverages introduced to the market in aluminum cans in just four years!

Why is aluminum such a desirable package? For starters, it protects the contents from light and oxygen. Aluminum is lightweight and cans are easily stacked, making storage and shipping more efficient. Less weight reduces fuel used in transportation, lowering greenhouse gas emissions. More recently, public awareness of the impact of plastics on the global environment has spurred many companies to turn away from plastic, which is inherently harder and more costly to recycle. A recent survey of U.S. consumers reported 84 percent as saying they expect products and packages to be easy to recycle and made with recycled content, while another survey showed 60 percent of consumers said they want non-plastic packaging options.

ReMade in the U.S.A.

The United States has the infrastructure for efficient, large-scale aluminum can recycling. Nearly five million aluminum cans are recycled in the United States every hour and 42.7 billion cans were recycled in the United States in 2019 alone. Companies in the United States that manufacture metal cans employ more than 19,000 people across the United States and generate an additional 113,000 jobs in supplier and ancillary industries. These include jobs in companies supplying goods and services to can manufacturers. The growing demand for aluminum containers is behind an announcement from Ball Corporation to build a new aluminum can manufacturing plant in Pittston, PA. A second aluminum can factory was announced by Poland-based CanPack for Scranton, PA.

Here’s what else to love about aluminum:

It’s valuable: Aluminum generates revenue for recycling companies. Aluminum beverage cans are typically the most valuable material in the residential recycling stream. That revenue helps offset the cost of recycling less valuable material like glass, paper and most plastics.

It’s infinitely recyclable: Aluminum (and all metals) can be recycled over and over again because they don’t lose structural integrity the way paper and plastic do. Most recycled cans are turned back into new cans in a continuous, renewable loop. A recycled aluminum can typically goes from the recycling bin to the grocery store shelf as a new can in about 60 days. The average aluminum can contains 50% post-consumer scrap (old cans), 23% post-industrial scrap (scrap generated during the manufacturing process), and 27% primary aluminum. Recycling more cans generates a greater supply of post-consumer aluminum to make higher recycled-content containers, reducing the need for the energy-intensive process of creating new aluminum.

📷: Can Manufacturing Institute