Steel packaging is being recycled in ever increasing volumes: the 2 million tonnes mark for recycled steel packaging was exceeded in 2002, representing an 8% growth in collected and recycled tonnage in Europe compared with the previous year. This means that the steel packaging industry has now reached its voluntary objective of 60% that it had set itself for 2005.

In terms of meeting the legal requirements, steel significantly contributes to reaching the EU recycling target for metal packaging (steel and aluminium), which the Packaging Directive has set at 50% by the year 2008.

Recycling rates are measured as a percentage of packaging put on the market The country leading the field in steel packaging recycling is still Belgium (93%), followed by a group of countries in the 70-80% recycling range made up of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden and Luxembourg. Norway, with a 60% recycling rate, reaches the European average, with Italy (55%) plus Spain and Ireland (51%) chasing France (57%) in the 50%-60% category.

The United Kingdom with 42% has made a 5% advance compared with 2001 and is closely followed by Finland (39%). Portugal, at 28%, remains at the 2001 level, but has already exceeded the minimum recycling rate (15%) which it had to reach under law by the end of 2005.