10 Years Later

摘要

After aluminum can recycling took a serious hit in 2001, the magazine asked "Is one of recycling's brightest stars headed for the tank?" A decade ago, used beverage can (UBC) recycling suffered the recycling industry's largest rate decline in modern times — a 12 percent drop, to 1.66 billion pounds — setting off loud alarms throughout the industry. Because of flat beverage can shipments (100.3 billion cans) the recycling rate for UBCs also plummeted, by seven percentage points, to 55.6 percent. This sizable dip took the UBC rate to the level it was more than a dozen years earlier. All of this grim news had industry analysts asking "why?"