The Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) is targeting a 70% US aluminum beverage can recycling rate by 2030, and the trade group's newest priority sits inside the materials recovery facility itself. Industry-commissioned research found that as many as 25% of used beverage cans entering a typical MRF are missorted into other material streams or lost to residue — material that already entered the recycling system but never reaches a furnace.

The scale of the gap is stark. Only 43% of aluminum beverage cans shipped in the US in 2023 were ultimately recycled, according to the latest industry data available, against an average of roughly 52% since tracking began in 1990. The 2023 figure ranks among the lowest levels recorded in recent decades.

Roxanne Sharif, CMI's director of sustainability, outlined the industry's priorities during Climate Week NYC, where representatives from across the aluminum supply chain discussed how to improve beverage can collection. CMI participated alongside the Aluminum Association, the International Aluminium Institute and other members of the Global Beverage Can Circularity Alliance. The program included site visits to MRFs in New Jersey and Westchester County, offering a direct look at the stage where aluminum cans are separated from household recycling streams.

Sharif joined CMI in February after sustainability roles at Colgate-Palmolive and now carries the 2030 target on her desk.

Financing can-capture equipment

CMI's answer to MRF losses is equipment. The association has worked with canmakers Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings to fund additional can-capture technology at recycling facilities. The program has evolved from direct grants into financing arrangements, under which equipment is paid for out of a share of the additional revenue generated from recovered aluminum — a structure that ties capital recovery directly to the recovered metal price.

At First Star Recycling in Omaha, Nebraska, equipment installed under the program is expected to recover more than 3 million beverage cans annually that would otherwise have been missorted. Earlier projects supported by CMI and its partners are estimated to be recovering tens of millions of additional cans each year.

The arithmetic appeals to canmakers: every can recaptured at a MRF requires no new collection volume, no consumer outreach and no new policy. Improving sorting efficiency recovers cans that are already entering the system.

Deposit systems and EPR as the bigger lever

CMI's strategy extends beyond MRF technology. The organization is also calling for wider use of deposit return systems (DRS) and extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, arguing that combining the two approaches increases both the quantity and quality of recovered beverage packaging.

The numbers behind that position are large. CMI estimates that a US deposit system achieving a 90% redemption rate could deliver an additional 67 billion aluminum cans into collection and recycling each year — approximately 813,000 tonnes of aluminum. Set against the 43% recycling rate recorded for 2023, that volume would move the industry a long way toward its 70% target.

Deposit systems also create a direct financial incentive for consumers to return containers, while EPR programs provide a funding mechanism for recycling infrastructure. CMI has previously identified container deposit systems, improved household and public recycling access, better MRF sorting and greater consumer awareness as the key components of its roadmap.

Consumer participation still in the equation

Infrastructure and policy changes alone will not determine how much aluminum flows back to domestic mills. CMI is also running consumer recycling programs and sharpening recycling messaging to increase the supply of used beverage cans available to the US aluminum industry. That includes addressing behavior beyond the household, with past industry initiatives targeting cans consumed away from home, including collection efforts at major public events.

The broader objective is straightforward: more cans reach the recycling system in the first place, and fewer of those cans leak out during sorting and processing.

What decides what happens next

CMI's initiatives identify three points where cans are recovered or lost: collection, sorting and consumer participation. Closing the 27-percentage-point gap between the 43% rate recorded for 2023 and the 70% target requires progress on all three simultaneously.

With four years remaining until the target year, the milestones to watch are concrete: whether the Omaha-style can-capture financing model expands to more MRFs, whether additional states adopt deposit or EPR programs, and whether the next industry recycling-rate data release shows 2023 as a floor rather than a trend. The 2030 deadline, not sentiment, will score the result.