SHARP RISE IN EU STEEL PACKAGING RECYCLING

According to data published by the steel packaging industry association Apeal, there was a sharp increase in recyclingof steel packaging within EU countries last year.Volumes are estimated to have increased from 1.67 million tonnes in 2000 to 1.89 million tonnes in 2001, while the recycling rate improved from 50% to 55%. Approximately 1.25 million additional tonnes of steel packaging is now recicled annually by the steel industry compared to a decade ago. Recycling rates remained high and stable among the leading recycling nations such as Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. Notable progress was reported by countries in Southern Europe - Portugal showed an increase from 16% to 28%, Italy from 26% to 44%, and Spain from 33% to 48%. In Ireland , the steel packaging recycling rate sky-rocketed from 16% in 2000 to 66% the following year, although this was the result of an improvement is statistics rather than a real increase in recycling, according to Apeal. In general, the figures show that all reporting member states easily surpassed the EU's June 30 2001 deadline of 15% recycling of each packaging material. On an international level, Japan (85%) and Northern Europe (seven countries exceeding 70%) are the recycling leaders, followed by South Africa (63.5%), the U.S.(58.5%), Korea (53.1%), Australia (42%) and Brazil (around 40%).