The European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA), together with its partner organisation Flexible Packaging Europe (FPE), is building a European alliance to significantly increase the recycling performance of small aluminium packaging - including coffee capsules. The aim is to be able to collect, sort and recycle these packaging formats on an industrial scale throughout Europe.
This is due to the increasing requirements of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). While aluminium is already achieving high recycling rates overall, small formats such as coffee capsules, chocolate and cheese foil, dairy product lids and small aluminium trays are still lagging far behind. Although modern sorting plants could already collect these fractions efficiently, this is not yet the case in many regions of Europe. A significant proportion therefore ends up in waste incineration and is at most partially recovered through the treatment of incineration residues - a process that will not fulfil the PPWR requirements for „recycled at scale“ in the future.
At the same time, the increasing introduction of deposit systems is creating new scope for sorting plants: as deposit beverage containers are increasingly being removed from household recycling, other packaging formats can be given greater focus.
„We need to join forces along the value chain in order to make progress, particularly with small aluminium packaging, and achieve the PPWR targets.“
Guido Aufdemkamp, Managing Director of EAFA
The alliance aims to identify bottlenecks in waste management that hinder high recycling performance and initiate studies that support the implementation of suitable measures in practice. The partners also want to draw on the experience of national aluminium recycling organisations and existing initiatives.
Broad participation
16 companies from the entire value chain have already confirmed their participation in the alliance. These include manufacturers of aluminium foil, flexible packaging, coffee capsules and semi-rigid containers as well as other suppliers, brand owners and bottlers. The official start of the collaboration is 1 January 2026 and the participating companies 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.
EAFA sees the broad participation along the value chain as a signal that the industry is ready to drive forward solutions for a circular economy with small aluminium packaging - with the aim of recycling it in high quality and on an industrial scale.
Source: European Aluminium Foil Association
