Aluminum can recycling rate up for second straight year

May 17 -- The U.S. aluminum can recycling rate increased for the second consecutive year, though the number of cans returned dropped slightly.

Americans recycled 51.4 billion aluminum cans in 2005, for a recycling rate of 52.0 percent. The rate reflects a 0.8 percent increase over 2004, when the rate increased for the first time since 1997. The 2005 recycling rate still lags far behind its 1997 peak, which was 66.5 percent.

But the U.S. collected 51.5 billion cans in 2004, about 100 million more than last year. Some 100.5 billion cans were shipped in 2004, compared with 98.9 billion in 2004.

The Aluminum Association, the Can Manufacturers Institute and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries released the statistics May 16.