“Tinplate provesonce again that it is a sustainable packaging material in a closed,well-functioning material loop. It can be recycled over andover again without losing its inherent properties,”says Dr. Peter Biele, CEO of thyssenkrupp Rasselstein GmbH. “A tinplate can, a twist-off closure or acrown cork can be recycled after use and made into a new, high-quality steelproduct as part of a wind turbine, car component or a bicycle part.”
Almost 100 percent of tinplate can be recycled in ahigh quality
Tinplate has acompelling advantage over many other packaging materials: it is almost 100percent recyclable. The characteristic properties of this metal allow steel tobe melted down over and over again and be processed with pig iron from theblast furnace to produce crude steel and then be made into a new steel product.
“For this to be possible, tinplate must be disposed ofproperly— here the ball is in the consumer's court. Empty tinplate packagingbelongs in the yellow bag or in the yellow garbage bin. This is the only way toensure that steel packaging will also return to the material cycle,” says Biele.
thyssenkruppRasselstein GmbH itself is helping to effectively close the material loop byensuring packaging steel is recycled in Germany using its own recycling systems:DWR - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Weißblechrecycling mbH for the private sectorand Kreislaufsystem Blechverpackungen Stahl GmbH for the commercial/industrialsector.
2020 was aspecial year overall—marked by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example,according to the gvm report, consumption of food cans increased 9 percent dueto COVID-19 because households stockpiled more. The consumption of chemical-technicalpackaging even increased by 16 percent as the DIY market flourished during thesame period.
As of the 2020reporting period, the calculation of the recycling rate has been modified bygvm in accordance with the European Implementing DecisionEU 2019/665.
