CIAL, the Italian Aluminium Packaging Consortium, reports that Italy has exceeded European targets with a 69.5% recycling rate for aluminium packaging, highlighting that beverage cans reached a 92.8% rate in 2025.
Last year, the Italian recycling rate for aluminium packaging was recorded at 69.5% - close to the recent 70% average, CIAL notes.
It goes on to report an overall recovery rate of 72.9%. While this marks a decrease of two percentage points from the adjusted figure of 71.4% in 2024, CIAL asserts that this is not the result of a decline in performance, but a 7% increase in the amount of packaging placed on the market.
The rise was a result of improvements in Italy’s economic climate and new adjustments in the calculation of the amount of packaging placed on the market, CIAL explains. These include the proportion of aluminium present in composite packaging.
Apparently, 65,000 tonnes of aluminium were sent for recycling; this is considered a 42% increase from 2024 and the highest figure in recent years. The outcome was thought to save 460,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents and 205,000 tonnes of oil equivalent.
If composite waste and the methodological adjustments of new European regulations are taken into account, CIAL believes that Italy’s overall recycling rate for aluminium packaging reached a total of 72% in 2025.
Aluminium beverage cans reached a recycling rate of 92.8%, which CIAL aligns with ‘the best’ European deposit return schemes. By comparison, it places the average European recycling rate for beverage cans in deposit-based systems at around 92%.
Including both deposit-based and separate collection systems, the average rate stands at 75%.
Beverage cans have reached a recycling rate of 92.8%, which represents a 5.5% increase in percentage points compared to the previous year. As such, CIPA describes Italy as ‘one of the most efficient countries in Europe’ for aluminium recycling.
“These results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the national waste management system, based on separate collection and recycling, which is capable of achieving results equal to – and in some cases exceeding – those of European countries that have adopted the deposit-refund system for several years,” says the organization.
Italy’s national system is believed to have met the EU’s 50% target for 2025, and CIPA anticipates that the country will exceed the 60% goal for 2030.
Earlier this year, European Aluminium and Metal Packaging Europe reported that the overall recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans in the European Union, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland reached 76.3% in 2023. This was thought to avoid 5.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
Returpack/Pantamera has also shared that over 3 billion PET bottles and aluminium cans were returned through Sweden’s deposit return scheme in 2025 – an increase of 130 million compared to the previous year.
However, Aluminium Deutschland says that the production of recycled aluminium in Germany has decreased by 3% to 684,564 metric tons in the first quarter of 2026. With almost all sectors of the national aluminium industry experiencing a decline, 57% of companies doubt that their circumstances will improve by the end of this year.
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