A new cross-industry alliance has been set up in Europe to close the recycling gap for “small aluminium” packaging formats, a category that ranges from coffee capsules and dairy lids to chocolate and cheese foils and small semi-rigid containers.
The initiative is being established by the European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA) together with Flexible Packaging Europe (FPE). Its objective is to create the conditions needed to ensure these formats can be collected, sorted and recycled at high quality and at scale across Europe, as the industry prepares for tighter expectations under the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
Why small formats still leak out of the system.
Aluminium is often associated with high recycling rates. Yet EAFA says small-format items still underperform in many regions, not because sorting is technically impossible, but because collection systems and sorting coverage remain uneven. Modern, large-scale sorting plants can already separate these materials effectively, but where infrastructure and practices lag behind, a significant share of small aluminium packaging still ends up in incineration. In those cases, aluminium may only be partially recovered through bottom ash treatment. A route the association argues will not satisfy future “recycled-at-scale” expectations under the PPWR.
The alliance also highlights a change in the wider recycling landscape: as deposit return schemes (DRS) expand, beverage containers are increasingly removed from household recycling streams. EAFA suggests this could open a window to refocus sorting efforts on other aluminium formats that are currently missed in mixed household flows.
Guido Aufdemkamp, Executive Director of EAFA, said the value chain needs to “join forces” to identify bottlenecks in waste management that prevent good outcomes for small aluminium packaging. The alliance plans to support targeted studies and practical measures that can be implemented across different local systems, building on the experience of national aluminium recycling organisations and existing initiatives.
EAFA says 16 companies across the value chain have already confirmed participation, including packaging and materials suppliers as well as brand owners and fillers: 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 was officially launched on the 1st of January, 2026.
For the aluminium packaging ecosystem, the announcement signals a shift from general recyclability claims to system-level fixes for small formats. In practice, that could mean clearer collection guidance, better sorting capture in MRFs, and evidence-based recommendations that can be implemented by EPR schemes and municipalities across Europe.
Industry watchers will now look for concrete workstreams, pilots and data that translate the alliance’s ambition into higher capture rates for small formats, in line with PPWR implementation and the evolving DRS landscape.
