Europe’s steel packaging sector used the global stage of interpack 2026 to sharpen its message around circularity, regulation, and recycling performance, unveiling a new industry report alongside record recycling figures that position steel as the continent’s highest-performing packaging material for recovery.
Released by Steel for Packaging Europe, the report – Steel Ahead: Packaging for a circular future – argues that steel packaging is already aligned with the European Union’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), while also outlining the policy, infrastructure and consumer behaviour changes needed to drive recycling rates even higher.
The timing of the report’s release at interpack is significant. Across the Düsseldorf show floor, materials suppliers, converters and machinery manufacturers repeatedly referenced the PPWR as a defining force shaping packaging innovation – from mono-material flexible packs and fibre-based structures through to reusable systems and digital product identification.
Steel for Packaging Europe (SfPE) president Richard Leze said the organisation is positioning steel packaging as one of the materials already capable of meeting the regulation’s future recyclability thresholds.
At the same time, the association announced a new record EU recycling rate for steel packaging: 84 per cent of all steel packaging placed on the market in 2024 was “really recycled”, meaning it entered actual recycling operations rather than simply being collected.
The figure represents a two-percentage-point increase on 2023 and, according to SfPE, already places steel within the highest recyclability performance grades outlined under the PPWR.
Steve Claus, secretary general of Steel for Packaging Europe, described the result as both a milestone and a strategic signal.
“Circularity is now critical to ensure EU resource efficiency and competitiveness,” Claus said.
“This record recycling rate of 84% is an achievement which the sector can take great pride in. But it is also a milestone which highlights the significance of steel scrap as a strategic resource.”
PPWR pressure reshaping materials landscape
The report places strong emphasis on the PPWR, adopted in 2024, which requires all packaging placed on the EU market to be recyclable by 2030 and recycled at scale by 2035.
Under the regulation’s recyclability grading system, packaging achieving 95 per cent recyclability will qualify for Grade A status, while anything below 70 per cent recyclability will no longer be legal from 2038 onwards.
SfPE argues steel packaging is inherently advantaged under this framework because it is already widely collected, easily separated through magnetic recovery systems, and recycled at scale across Europe.
“Steel packaging already sits within grades A and B,” the report states.
The association also highlights steel’s role as a “permanent material” that can be recycled indefinitely without losing its intrinsic properties.
That messaging closely mirrors broader industry conversations now unfolding across the packaging value chain globally, including in Australia, where design-for-recycling principles and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks are increasingly influencing material choices.
Beyond collection: the quality challenge
While headline recycling rates dominate attention, one of the report’s strongest themes is the importance of collection quality, sorting infrastructure and consumer behaviour in determining whether materials truly remain circular.
The report repeatedly stresses that the challenge for steel recycling is no longer recyclability itself, but rather maintaining the quality and purity of recovered scrap streams.
A key issue identified is “material nesting” – where consumers place plastics, paper or other materials inside steel packaging before disposal. These contaminants can bypass magnetic separation systems and reduce the quality of recovered steel fractions.
The report also highlights the growing complexity of co-mingled waste streams, with flexible plastics and small-format packaging creating additional sorting challenges.
To counter this, SfPE advocates greater harmonisation of collection systems across Europe, improved consumer education, more advanced sorting infrastructure, and increased deployment of secondary magnetic separation systems capable of recovering smaller steel items such as closures and crown caps.
One notable observation in the report is that over 90 per cent of the European population lives within 200 kilometres of a steel plant, enabling locally integrated recycling loops and reducing transport burdens associated with material recovery.
EPR debate enters sharper focus
The report also enters the increasingly contested territory of EPR fee structures, arguing that highly recyclable materials should face materially lower compliance costs.
SfPE says steel’s strong recycling performance, positive scrap value, and relatively low sorting costs should be recognised through eco-modulated EPR fees.
The association argues that well-designed EPR systems should reward materials that demonstrate genuine circular performance rather than allowing cross-subsidisation between recyclable and difficult-to-recycle formats.
That position reflects a wider global debate now emerging around how EPR frameworks should financially differentiate between packaging materials based not only on collection rates, but also on sorting efficiency, contamination risk, end-market demand and recycled material quality.
For Australian readers, the themes will sound familiar. Industry discussion around mandatory packaging reform, harmonised design standards, recycled content targets and stewardship obligations continues to intensify locally, particularly as governments examine the next phase of packaging regulation.
A material positioning battle
Although framed as a technical recycling report, Steel Ahead is also clearly part of a broader competitive positioning exercise underway between packaging material sectors.
At interpack 2026, fibre-based packaging suppliers highlighted recyclability and renewable feedstocks; flexible packaging innovators promoted mono-material structures; reuse proponents pushed systems thinking; and digital technologies emphasised traceability and data transparency.
Steel’s response is to lean heavily into permanence, existing infrastructure compatibility, and real-world recycling performance.
The report notes that in 2022 alone, more than 2.8 million tonnes of packaging steel were recycled in Europe, saving more than 4.2 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
It also points to long shelf life, product protection, ambient storage capability and food waste reduction as additional sustainability credentials for steel packaging formats.
As packaging regulation tightens globally, those arguments are likely to become increasingly important in the battle for material preference across food, beverage and consumer goods markets.
For now, the sector is using its record recycling figures to reinforce a central claim: in a regulatory environment increasingly focused on demonstrable circularity, steel packaging believes it is already ahead of the curve.
