FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Pat Franklin
April 22, 1999 Executive Director
SINCE THE FIRST EARTH DAY AMERICANS HAVE LANDFILLED
MORE THAN 750 BILLION ALUMINUM BEVERAGE CANS
Last Year we Recycled 56 Billion and Discarded a Record 46 Billion Cans
ARLINGTON, VA -- The Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a nonprofit
research group reports that since the first Earth Day Americans have
landfilled more than 750 billion aluminum beverage cans. "Despite the high
value of aluminum can scrap," said Pat Franklin, Executive Director of CRI,
"the recycling rate for aluminum cans dropped to 56 percent in 1998, its
lowest point in ten years."
"Falling recycling rates for aluminum cans - the premier recyclable - and
other scrap materials is not a great Earthay birthday present," Franklin
said. CRI's data reveals that of the 102 billion aluminum cans sold in the
U.S. last year, an estimated 56 billion cans were recycled and a record
number of cans -- 46 billion -- ended up in landfills.
"The tens of billions of aluminum cans landfilled last year are just part of
a much bigger 'waste' picture," said Franklin. "Mining, obtaining energy
for refining and the refining process itself have enormous environmental
impact." She pointed out that it takes the same amount of energy to make
one new aluminum can from raw materials as it does to make four new cans
from scrap cans.
CRI's research shows that while the national recycling rate for aluminum
cans has dropped to 56 percent, the average recycling rate for aluminum cans
and other beverage containers is below 50 percent but is 80 percent or
higher in states where these containers have a deposit value of a nickel or
a dime. "The five or ten-cent incentive keeps bottles and cans off of
streets and beaches and out of landfills in Michigan, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New York, Oregon, Maine, Vermont and Iowa. Even in California
where beverage cans have a 2.5 cent value, the recycling rate for aluminum
cans was 75 percent last year."
Franklin says she recognizes and applauds the aluminum can manufacturing
industry's successful efforts at source reduction by reducing the weight of
aluminum cans by 40 percent over the past twenty years. "While I don't
doubt their commitment to the environment, it is a fact that can
manufacturers realize huge energy savings by making new cans out of used
cans. This cost savings is the primary motivation."
Noting that the aluminum can recycling rate is lower than it was in 1990,
when curbside recycling was in its infancy, she said, "It should be obvious,
by now that we cannot rely on the curbside recycling infrastructure to boost
recycling rates for aluminum cans. It would appear that the only way to get
the recycling rate above 70 percent is through a deposit return system."
Franklin said a National Bottle Bill was introduced in Congress today by
Sen. James Jeffords (R-VT) that would require a 10-cent deposit on aluminum,
glass and plastic beverage containers. Jeffords's bill would exempt any
state that can show they are recycling their beverage containers at a rate
of 70 percent or higher within a year after enactment.
"With the decline in recycling rates for aluminum, glass and plastic
beverage containers, the time may just be ripe for a national bottle bill,"
Franklin said. "Without it, we can look forward to reaching the trillion
mark for aluminum beverage can discards by Earth Day 2004."
# # #
Pat Franklin, Executive Director
Container Recycling Institute
1911 Ft. Myer Drive Suite 900
Arlington, VA 22209
703/276-9800 fax 276-9587
email: cri@igc.org
web: www.container-recycling.org