The Association of European Producers of Steel for Packaging found that, on average, one in every two steel packs was recycled in 2000 across 13 countries. This marks a 15% increase on 1999 results helped by the growth in recycling rates achieved by Spain, Britain and Italy (33%, 34% and 26% respectively).

Steel recycling in the European market is said to have come on leaps and bounds with Luxembourg topping the league at 93%, followed by Germany and Austria at 80%. At the lower end, Portugal, Italy and Finland have exceeded the minimum 15% rate of the steel recycling directive.

However, APEAL offers the sobering projection that, owing to vastly differing national waste management infrastructures, a 50% recycling rate of metal packaging for each member state to be reached by 2006 is unrealistic.