Can do more: Ball Corporation director examines aluminum circularity at Climate Week NYC

22 Sep 2023 --- The packaging industry has the power to advance climate change mitigation during what is a “fundamental decade” for the Paris Agreement, according to Maria Alegre, Ball Corporation’s global stakeholder relations director.

We spoke to Alegre during Climate Week New York City (NYC) to understand the importance of such events and the role aluminum cans can play in a circular economy for packaging. 

What impact can platforms like Climate Week NYC have on climate change mitigation?
Alegre: The packaging industry plays a significant role in generating waste and emissions contributing to climate change. Packaging represents up to 40% of Ball’s customers’ carbon footprints, so we have an immense role in decarbonizing their businesses.

Leaders across our industry must engage with platforms like Climate Week NYC to collaborate with diverse stakeholders, exchange ideas and explore innovative solutions and partnerships that can accelerate progress on environmental sustainability and circularity within our supply chain.

Ball highlights aluminum packaging for its recyclability.What climate issues does the packaging industry need to pay more attention to?Alegre: The packaging industry must prioritize adopting an approach that enables the circular economy. The environmental benefits of creating a robust circular system come from displacing primary resource production – ensuring that recycled materials are used to develop new, high-quality products instead of using virgin resources. To move toward a real circular economy, we must change how we think about products, markets, ownership and resources. Simply recycling more is not enough. Instead, we need to focus on preserving the value of materials through activities that can keep them in use at their highest and best value for as long as possible.

Aluminum cans are a textbook example of a well-suited packaging option for this new paradigm, as used beverage cans (UBCs) are consistently recycled back into new beverage cans with a minimal loss of material value. UBC closed-loop recycling (can-to-can recycling) preserves aluminum value over time.

Circularity is vital to combat our ever-growing packaging waste crisis, but it also offers a significant economic opportunity for waste collectors, recyclers, industrial materials users, recycling equipment providers and other stakeholders. For aluminum specifically, a 90% recycling rate would mean an additional 104,000 jobs that would be created in the US waste management industry.

How do EPR and DRS increase recycling rates for aluminum cans?
Alegre: Aluminum cans’ physical qualities enable circularity. They are made of one homogenous material that is highly compactable, easy and economical to handle and has a high residual value. Not only can aluminum be recycled almost infinitely with minimal losses, but making recycled aluminum takes 5% of the energy needed to make new aluminum. We are proud that the aluminum beverage can is already the most recycled drink container in the world.

However, to unleash the full potential of the circular economy, we need to increase collection and recycling rates of aluminum packaging by enacting key policies such as EPR, which mandates businesses to collect and recycle, and modern DRS, which makes collection and recycling of beverage packaging more efficient. DRS applies an extra monetary charge as a deposit on beverage containers, which is returned to consumers when they bring them to recycling collection points. It has been proven as a tried and tested method of increasing recycling rates worldwide, including in the US, where the average amount of aluminum recycled in DRS states is more than three times higher than in non-DRS states.Ball encourages the packaging industry to become more circular at Climate Week NYC.

The need to financially create and strengthen recycling systems coupled with the goals beverage brands have set to increase the recycling rates and recycled content for their packaging has led to solid momentum behind EPR legislation. We closely follow these discussions and work with industry partners to influence these legislative efforts in all our key regions.

This combination of DRS and EPR is already proven to work. Additionally, these regulations incentivize the industry to rethink packaging and, very importantly, do not involve any extra cost for governments.

How do EPR and DRS relate to Climate Week NYC?
Alegre: We believe collaboration with policymakers and stakeholders across the value chain is needed to prioritize effective policies like EPR and DRS and increase the collection and recycling of aluminum. Gatherings like Climate Week NYC are essential to share and discuss our vision, show leadership and align sectors on a path forward to enacting these policy changes. This is a fundamental decade to meet the Paris Agreement goals, and we are at Climate Week to encourage moving swiftly past mere pledges and into action and collaboration.

What is Ball’s climate transition plan?
Alegra: Ball’s Climate Transition Plan outlines an ambitious, realistic and transparent pathway (as opposed to a pledge) to transform the company into a fully circular and decarbonized business, allowing it to serve shareholders, customers and the planet better.

Ball’s global stakeholder relations director underscores the importance of DRS.The plan focuses on critical emissions reductions by 2030 and does not rely on offsets to achieve it. With circularity as a crucial lever, we aim to reduce 55% of our emissions across all scopes and earn 90% recycling rates and 85% recycled content by 2030 – something that is entirely feasible with current technologies and by leveraging existing policies. Moreover, the science-based milestones align with the 1.5-degrees Celsius target. Hence, with packaging representing up to 40% of Ball’s customers’ carbon footprints, our decarbonization plans will be sound insurance for them.

The plan advocates for packaging industry alignment, collaboration and systemic transformation across the value chain. For example, the company is a founding member of the aluminum sector of the World Economic Forum’s First Movers Coalition, a global initiative harnessing companies’ purchasing power to unlock the untapped potential of emerging technologies needed to decarbonize the world by 2050. Ball committed to purchasing 10% of primary aluminum annually as low-carbon aluminum by 2030.

What should brands do to decarbonize?
Alegre: Climate goals need the full engagement of the private sector. Since adopting the Paris Agreement in 2015, the world has seen an increasing number of net-zero pledges accompanied by a proliferation of criteria and benchmarks with varying levels of robustness. This can mislead consumers, investors and regulators with false narratives and feeds a culture of climate misinformation.

As per the UN call to action and the guidelines by its High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities, companies must develop better and clearer standards for credible, transparent, and accountable net-zero emissions pledges and outline their implementation in climate transition plans grounded in accurate emissions cuts.

Ball’s Climate Transition Plan follows those principles. We hope it inspires our industry leaders to take action, make strategic investments, encourage innovation and work together to build net zero circular systems.

By Sabine Waldeck