The European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA), in partnership with Flexible Packaging Europe (FPE), has announced the creation of a new European industry alliance aimed at significantly improving the recycling performance of small aluminium packaging. The initiative focuses on formats such as coffee capsules, chocolate and cheese foils, dairy lids and other small aluminium containers that currently face challenges in collection and sorting across Europe.
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Alliance Background
The alliance is being established against the backdrop of the upcoming Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which introduces stricter requirements around recyclability and “recycling at scale”. While aluminium packaging overall achieves comparatively high recycling rates, small aluminium items continue to underperform in many regions, often falling outside effective collection and sorting systems.
Addressing a Structural Weak Point in Aluminium Recycling
According to the organizations behind the initiative, the issue is not the recyclability of aluminium itself, but the uneven performance of waste management systems across Europe. In large and modern sorting facilities, small aluminium formats can already be effectively separated and routed to aluminium recycling streams. However, this capability is far from universal.
As a result, a significant share of small aluminium packaging still ends up in incineration. Although some aluminium is recovered later from bottom ash, this route does not meet the PPWR’s future requirements for packaging to be recycled at scale and into high-quality secondary raw materials.
At the same time, the rapid rollout of Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) for beverage containers is changing the composition of household recycling streams. As aluminium cans are increasingly removed through DRS systems, sorting plants are expected to have more capacity to focus on other aluminium packaging formats.
The new alliance sees this shift as an opportunity to improve recovery rates for small aluminium items that have historically been overlooked.
Value Chain Collaboration as a Core Strategy
The alliance is built on the premise that improving recycling performance for small aluminium packaging requires coordinated action across the entire value chain. This includes material producers, converters, brand owners, fillers and recyclers, as well as engagement with waste management stakeholders.
EAFA’s leadership has underlined that progress will depend on jointly identifying bottlenecks in collection, sorting and recycling, and supporting this work with targeted studies and pilot actions. The alliance also intends to build on existing national aluminium recycling initiatives and the experience of established industry networks to ensure that solutions can be implemented in practice, not just discussed at policy level.
Broad Industry Participation Confirmed
Sixteen companies from across the aluminium and flexible packaging value chain have already confirmed their participation. These include producers of aluminium foil and semi-rigid containers, flexible packaging manufacturers, coffee capsule producers, brand owners and suppliers.
Confirmed members include Actega, Al Invest, Aluminium Féron, Alupak, Amcor, Bel Group, Constantia Flexibles, Datwyler, Delica, Formika, JDE Peet’s, Laminazione Sottile, Lindt, Nestlé Nespresso, Speira and Symetal. The alliance officially launched on 1 January 2026 and is now operational across Europe.
Supporting Circular Economy Objectives
By targeting small aluminium packaging formats, the alliance aims to close a persistent gap in Europe’s recycling system and support the transition to a more circular aluminium economy. Improving the collection and sorting of these materials would allow more aluminium to be recycled into high-quality applications, reducing reliance on primary raw materials and lowering overall environmental impact.
Conclusion
The formation of this new European alliance reflects a growing industry consensus that meeting PPWR requirements will require practical and system-wide solutions, particularly for packaging formats that have been difficult to recycle at scale in the past. By bringing together stakeholders from across the value chain, EAFA and FPE aim to turn existing technical capabilities into consistent, Europe-wide recycling performance for small aluminium packaging. If successful, the initiative could play a key role in ensuring that these formats are no longer a weak point in aluminium’s otherwise strong recycling record.
