IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 8, 2002

Contact: Pat Franklin (VA) 703/276-9800 Jenny Gitlitz (MA) 508/793-8516

Institute calls on Alcoa to clarify recycling goals and endorse container deposits

WASHINGTON, DC (October 4, 2002) -- The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) today responded to Alcoa's recent commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from aluminum smelting. "We applaud Alcoa's willingness to implement pollution control measures to mitigate their impact on the global environment," said CRI's executive director Pat Franklin, "but we are concerned by the vagueness of Alcoa's recycling goals, and the company's failure to explain how these goals will be achieved."

CRI released its response, "Holding Alcoa Accountable for its Sustainability Goals" one week after Alcoa Executive Vice President John Pizzey addressed members of the Aluminum Association at their annual meeting in Nemacolin, PA. In his remarks to the trade association, Mr. Pizzey said, "The set of goals we have established will serve as milestones along the way to our ultimate vision of a company where. the environment is fully integrated into manufacturing."

"Once a rainforest has been inundated by a series of hydroelectric dams and reservoirs, there is no environment left to integrate," said CRI research director Jenny Gitlitz. "Once wetlands or estuaries have been drained, filled or contaminated as a result of smelter construction or operation, they no longer serve as breeding grounds for waterfowl or habitat for marine life. The construction of new dams, smelters, and strip mines is not compatible with environmental protection, period. " Gitlitz is author of CRI's new report, "Trashed Cans: The Global Environmental Impacts of Aluminum Can Wasting in America."

Last year, 760,000 tons of aluminum cans were wasted in the United States. "These must be replaced with entirely new cans made from virgin materials," Gitlitz said. "Irreplaceable wilderness areas in Iceland, Brazil, Chile, and Mozambique are threatened by proposed dams, smelters, and other elements of the megalithic aluminum manufacturing infrastructure."

Aluminum beverage cans make up 20% of total U.S. aluminum production, and the can recycling rate dropped to a 15-year low of 49.2%, according to CRI. "Container deposits, which exist in 11 states, are the only proven system of recovering cans at rates above 70 percent," said Gitlitz.

In order to reverse aluminum can wasting, CRI is urging Alcoa to adopt a global recycling policy that endorses mandatory container deposits, and is encouraging the company to ask their aluminum industry colleagues to do the same. "Corporations share with their consumers the responsibility for the impacts of their products and packaging on the global environment," said Franklin, "and refundable deposits put the responsibility where it belongs."

Mr. Pizzey, in his statement, explained that "50 percent of Alcoa's products, except raw ingot that would be sold to others directly, will be made from recycled aluminum by 2020." Gitlitz maintains the statement is more remarkable for what it does not say than for what it does say. "As stated, the goal could mean that 50 percent of the products will be made with 90% recycled content or with 9% recycled content, and there's a huge difference."

CRI is also concerned about the 2020 date for reaching the recycling goal. "2020 is not soon enough," said Gitlitz. "Irreplaceable ecosystems and human communities will be swallowed by the industry's great maw if 18 years transpire before a modest and unclear 50% goal is met. In the last decade, cans and other aluminum products have been introduced in many markets lacking recycling infrastructures."

Regarding Mr. Pizzey's statement that "[a]pproximately two-thirds of aluminum ever produced: 440 million tons of 680 million tons manufactured since 1886.is still in use", Gitlitz responded, "If it's true that two thirds of the aluminum ever made is still in use, and we are not convinced that is true, then the converse must also be true: one third, or at least 220 million tons of valuable aluminum, have been wasted over the past century: dumped, landfilled, incinerated, or littered." According to Gitlitz, this represents an energy waste equivalent to more than 6 billion barrels of crude oil--enough to keep all 200 million American passenger cars and light trucks on the road for over two years.

"Increasing aluminum can recycling is key to reducing resource consumption, pollution and energy use related to can manufacturing," Franklin said, "and financial incentives--in the form of refundable deposits on beverage containers--are key to achieving high recycling rates."

CRI is a nonprofit organization that studies and promotes container recycling systems.
CRI's complete response is available at:
www.container-recycling.org/assets/pdfs/Alcoa--100402.pdf

The full text of Mr. Pizzey's speech is available at:
www.alcoa.com/global/en/environment/further_reading.asp

The "Trashed Cans" report is available at:
http://www.container-recycling.org/publications/order.htm

IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 9, 2002

Contact: Jenny Gitlitz, Author and Dir. or Rsch. Pat Franklin, Executive Director 703-276-9800

Americans Trashed 50 Billion Aluminum Beverage Cans in 2001

Report Details Serious Global Environmental Consequences

WASHINGTON, DC (July 9, 2002) -- The Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a non-profit research group, released a new report today titled "Trashed Cans: The Global Environmental Impacts of Aluminum Can Wasting in America." The report details the global environmental impacts of replacing 50 billion wasted cans each year with new cans made from virgin materials.

"This can wasting represents a tremendous lost opportunity to save energy and resources," said the report's author, Jenny Gitlitz. "The energy required to replace the 50 billion cans trashed last year was equivalent to 16 million barrels of crude oil--enough to meet the electricity needs of all the homes in Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Seattle and San Francisco."

According to the report, over half of the 100 billion cans sold in the United States in 2001 were not recycled and last year's 49% aluminum can recycling rate dropped to its lowest in 15 years. The report states that 33,764 Boeing 737 jets could have been built with the 759,625 tons of aluminum wasted in 2001. Aluminum can waste last year was 28% more than a decade ago (594,420 tons).

"The public often views the aluminum can as 'environmentally friendly' due to its recyclability," Gitlitz said, "but just because something is recyclable, it doesn't always follow that it is recycled. In the case of aluminum cans, for every six-pack of beer or soda cans recycled, another six-pack ends up in a landfill."

"Most people are unaware of the many adverse environmental impacts that aluminum production entails, and that aluminum wasting exacerbates," she said, citing environmental impacts that included air and water pollution, the emission of millions of tons of greenhouse gases, the loss of habitat from mining bauxite and hydroelectric energy production, and the disruption of human settlements in many different countries.

Gitlitz's remarks were echoed by Allen Hershkowitz, Senior Scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The squandering of hundreds of thousands of tons of valuable, energy intensive aluminum each year is a national disgrace with global implications. Decision-makers at every level of government.should review this report and take action promptly to compel manufacturers to take responsibility for their impositions and reverse this unacceptable environmental and economic disgrace."

John Passacantando, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA said, "The innocent looking aluminum can truly leaves a global imprint. The lesson: convenience comes with a price and a responsibility. Now more than ever, recycling mandates for aluminum and other waste should clearly be a part of the national energy policy."

According to the report, the rising tide of can waste is due primarily to a decreasing financial incentive to recycle aluminum cans. "The value of a pound of aluminum cans to folks who collect scrap cans for cash hasn't changed much in the past decade, but the value of a dollar has declined," said Gitlitz.

"People are also drinking more beverages on the go, away from the convenience of residential curbside recycling bins, and many of these cans are ending up in the garbage," Gitlitz said. "Consumers in the ten U.S. states with bottle bills, on the other hand, have a 2.5�-10� incentive to recycle, and they are able to achieve recycling rates of 70% to 95%."

"This report paints a vivid picture of the alarming environmental impacts of this 'throwaway' package," said CRI Executive Director Pat Franklin. "We hope it will motivate policymakers and environmental advocates to take steps to eliminate the needless wasting of energy and material resources embedded in the billions of cans wasted in America each year."

On July 11th, Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vermont) will hold a committee hearing on recycling, including a discussion of his own bill: S. 2220, the Beverage Producer Responsibility Act of 2002. The Act would require all beverage containers except milk to have a 10-cent deposit, and be recycled at a rate of 80%.

"The recycling rate for our most recyclable material has dropped below the 50% mark. A national recycling policy is needed to reverse this egregious waste of energy and resources", said Senator Jeffords from his Washington office, where he chairs the Committee on Environment and Public Works. "Ten states have demonstrated the effectiveness of refundable deposits in achieving high recycling rates; it's time to replicate their success at the national level."

Gitlitz said that passage of the Jeffords bill could enable the national aluminum can recycling rate to climb above 85%, as it has in Sweden and several Canadian provinces, where similar legislation exists. "A national deposit law has the potential to recycle 36 billion more cans than we do today, saving the additional energy equivalent of 11 million barrels of crude oil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by over 2 million tons, and reducing countless environmental impacts around the world."

The report "Trashed Cans: The Global Environmental Impacts of Aluminum Can Wasting in America" can be ordered from the Container Recycling Institute by phone or on the web at: www.container-recycling.org/publications/order.htm.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 29, 2002

Contact: Pat Franklin, Ex. Dir. (703) 276-9800

Aluminum Can Recycling Rate Drops Below 50 Percent

ENERGY WASTED IS ENOUGH TO MEET ELECTRICITY NEEDS OF 2.7 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS

WASHINGTON, DC (APRIL 29, 2002) -- Last year more aluminum cans were littered, landfilled or incinerated than were recycled, according to the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), a research group that studies container recycling issues and tracks container recycling rates. CRI data also shows that the rate has been in a state of decline for ten years, after peaking at 65 percent in 1992.

Using industry data, U.S. Department of Commerce trade data, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) formula for determining recycling rates, CRI found that the recycling rate for aluminum beverage cans dropped below 50 percent in 2001 for the first time in 16 years.

"The 50.7 billion aluminum cans wasted last year squandered enormous energy resources. The energy value of those trashed cans was equivalent to 16 million barrels of crude oil, or enough energy to supply 2.7 million American homes with electricity for a year," said Pat Franklin, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute.

On April 26th the Aluminum Association reported an aluminum can recycling rate of 55.4 percent for 2001, a rate CRI says is not accurate. "First they inflate the recycling rate with 6.4 billion imported scrap cans. Then, despite a drop of nearly 7 percentage points in one year, based on their calculations, they fail to acknowledge the drop in the rate and the 12 percent drop in the tons of cans recycled. Finally, they offer no explanation for the decline, or how we might reverse the wasting trend."

In 1997 the industry, led by ALCAN, announced an aluminum can recycling goal of 75 percent by 2001. "Whether one accepts the inaccurate figure from the aluminum industry (55.4 percent) or the Container Recycling Institute's figure which uses EPA's methodology and reflects the true recycling rate (49.2 percent), the fact is we are much further from that goal of 75 percent today than we were in 1997 when the recycling rate was at 59.8 percent.

"The only recycling programs recovering aluminum cans at rates above 75 percent are container deposit programs," said Franklin. "Putting a 5 or 10 cent deposit on cans and bottles provides a monetary incentive to recycle and an incentive not to litter. If the aluminum industry got behind a nationwide deposit system, we could reverse the wasting trend and bring the recycling rate for aluminum cans and all beverage containers beyond 75 percent."