FAQs

Metal Packaging Europe has been established to engage on the sustainable benefits for metal packaging and to provide clarity on key industry issues from suppliers through to producers.

Metal Packaging Europe represents the united interests of producers and suppliers of metal packaging across Europe.

Metal Packaging Europe engages on issues of common interest for the metal packaging industry across Europe. As an organisation we recognise metal packaging is a valuable contributor to sustainability in public policy and through the supply chain.

The five main metal packaging areas are:

• Food cans and ends
• Beverage cans
• General Line cans (paint cans, industrial cans, speciality packaging)
• Aerosol cans
• Caps & Closures

Key markets include:

• Food
• Beverages and drinks
• Party kegs
• Aerosols and sprays
• Paints and coatings
• Chemicals, oils and greases
• Media packs
• Novelty and luxury goods

Rigid metal packaging uses only two materials – steel and aluminium. Steel is usually in the form of tinplate i.e. tin coated steel. The aluminium raw material is supplied to the can and closure makers on coils or as flat sheets depending on the manufacturing process.

• The inherent qualities of metal make it an excellent packaging material, not only for food and drink, but also for household, promotional and industrial products.
• It offers convenient, protective packaging, allowing ambient storage for food products.
• Metal packaging is infinitely recyclable without loss of quality or performance
• It provides an absolute barrier against water, oxygen and light.
• It can be used to preserve its contents naturally without preservatives.
• It ensures integrity of the content throughout its long shelf life.
• It helps prevent food waste.
• It has light-weighting potential
• It is cost-effective, enabling high-speed operations, and fulfilling efficient supply chain requirements
• Due to the constant evolution of steel, can-making and coating technologies, metal packaging allows an increasing range of shelf differentiation possibilities.

It is very easy to recycle as well as being very economical. Metal packaging can be recycled time and time again, without its properties ever deteriorating.

Thanks to its unique properties, mechanical extraction of metal packaging from mixed waste or from other packaging is highly cost-effective and can easily be automated. Metal packaging can be recycled time and time again, without its properties ever deteriorating.

Steel and aluminium metal packaging is a 100 percent recyclable material with no downgrading of its qualities. Only about 5 percent of the energy required to produce the primary metal initially is needed in the recycling process.

Once metal is extracted and refined from the earth’s crust, the application may vary, but the permanent character of the material will allow for an infinite sustainable use in new products and applications.