Press Release: Aluminium Beverage Can Recycling Reaches a New Record as Industry Drives Toward 100% Circularity by 2050

17 Feb 2026

European Aluminium and Metal Packaging Europe’s latest report shows that the recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans across the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland reached 76.3% in 2023. Record figures confirm that both volumes placed on the market and recycling tonnages continued to rise year on year, with recycling increasing by 7% and feeding unprecedented volumes of aluminium back into Europe’s circular economy. The recycled tonnage represents a total greenhouse gas emissions saving of 5.7 million tonnes of CO₂eq, underlining the sector’s contribution to Europe’s long-term circularity and decarbonisation objectives.

European Aluminium Calls for the Inclusion of Low-Carbon Aluminium in the 2035 Automotive Credit System

European Aluminium calls on EU institutions to include low-carbon aluminium credits—alongside those for low-carbon steel—within the CO₂ standards for cars regulation. Aluminium and steel are both used in significant volumes in vehicles and are largely substitutable in many applications. Limiting credits to low-carbon steel alone risks creating an uneven playing field between materials and incentivising suboptimal component choices. Including low-carbon aluminium in the scope of the regulation is therefore essential for strategic, technological and sustainability reasons.

18 Feb 2026

CBAM Temporary Decarbonisation Fund

The European Commission’s proposed Regulation establishing a temporary decarbonisation fund does not adequately address export exposure to the competitive disadvantages created by CBAM and risks weakening the competitiveness of the European aluminium value chain. To effectively prevent carbon leakage, the fund requires substantial adjustments, including preserving ETS free allocation for exports and compensating for increased raw material costs linked to CBAM’s impact on the Aluminium European Premium Duty-Paid (EDP).

17 Feb 2026

Why Including Indirect Emissions Under CBAM Destabilises Europe’s Aluminium Value Chain and Raises Global Emissions

European Aluminium strongly supports keeping indirect emissions out of CBAM. Their inclusion would severely undermine the competitiveness of the European aluminium value chain, from primary smelters to semi-finished producers and remelters, while paradoxically increasing global emissions by shifting production to more carbon-intensive regions. It would also weaken the industry’s capacity to make long-term investments in further decarbonisation.

17 Feb 2026