https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottrbreen/
https://www.cancentral.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/can-manufacturers-institute/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_detail_base%3BWF6PN88SQ5CpK13ZzKQnfQ%3D%3D
Did you know 93% of recycled cans become new cans?
The goal is to get to 70% can recycling by 2030. For the USA
Did you know that when a state has a deposit system it more than doubles their recycling rates?
Here is a link to Scott's Podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4ZjbzpHvRblaMVIZ0RaBfm?si=8ecdff584c6b45b1
It was an honor and so much fun to interview Mr. Scott Breen. I've always thought aluminum was a great packaging material and this conversation really proved it to me. Thank you all for listening! Please subscribe and tell your friends about us.
Check out our sponsor Orora Packaging Solutions
https://ororapackagingsolutions.com/
https://specright.com/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1329820053/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=corygat
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/
I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.
This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottrbreen/
https://www.cancentral.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/can-manufacturers-institute/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_detail_base%3BWF6PN88SQ5CpK13ZzKQnfQ%3D%3D
Did you know 93% of recycled cans become new cans?
The goal is to get to 70% can recycling by 2030. For the USA
Did you know that when a state has a deposit system it more than doubles their recycling rates?
Here is a link to Scott's Podcast:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4ZjbzpHvRblaMVIZ0RaBfm?si=8ecdff584c6b45b1
It was an honor and so much fun to interview Mr. Scott Breen. I've always thought aluminum was a great packaging material and this conversation really proved it to me. Thank you all for listening! Please subscribe and tell your friends about us.
Check out our sponsor Orora Packaging Solutions
https://ororapackagingsolutions.com/
https://specright.com/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1329820053/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=corygat
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/
I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap.
This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.
Welcome to sustainable packaging with Cory Connors . Today's guest is Mr. Scott Breen, who is the vice president of sustainability of the can manufacturers Institute. Hey Scott.
Scott Breen:Hey Corey.
Cory Connors:Really good. Thanks for taking time to join us today. I think cans are an amazing package. Option. And I'm excited to talk about them today. You've had an incredible background. I was just like blown away. Wow. Can you tell us a little bit about it and how you ended up here in the can world?
Scott Breen:Well, sure. I mean, I was one of those people and I tell people not to do this. Corey, I went straight through to graduate school. I need go make some money. You make sure that's what you want to do, but I did it. So I got a joint degree law school master of public affairs at Indiana university up. Love Bloomington, Indiana, miss it every day. And yeah, I did practice law for a couple of years with the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. So I learned a lot about fisheries. We can talk about that if you want to. But after Noah, I went to work for the U S chamber of commerce foundation because I had actually, while I was working as an attorney, I wanted a creative outlet and I started a podcast sustainability defined it's called. We define sustainability, one concept and one bad joke at a time. I'll probably throw in a couple of bad jokes here and okay, good. And you can make them to Cornell laugh. I promise. And we, I, I wanted to get more to the sustainability world. Right. And I knew the more I worked at NOAA, the more. Focused again on fisheries, the harder it would be to pivot. So I took the leap, worked at the us chamber of commerce foundation, helped manage their sustainability and circular accounting program was fortunate enough to help take a leadership position with their recycling initiative. It's called beyond 34. It's still going today. Hey, and then from there I came to my current organization, have a dream job it's working for the can manufacturers Institute, or I get to still wear that lawyer hat once in awhile, you know, read the bill. Right to bills that we're trying to push talk to lawmakers, regulators about our sustainability story, but also get to dream up initiatives and partnerships and research that can help us better understand and also improve our leading sustainability story.
Cory Connors:That's incredible that can. Packaging has been a big deal over the last few years. And I'm excited to discuss that, but can you tell us about your role specifically? So you, you, you work with the legal team you work with lobbyists, maybe there
Scott Breen:is some of that. So we have an advocate on staff, a lobbyist. Mike smile has his name is he's great VP of government relations. So I do work with him to do some advocacy. We collaborate. So I often am collaborating with the organizations on initiatives. For instance, we are collaborating with the household and commercial products association on an aerosol recycling initiative. So two of us team there to try to improve access to aerosol can recycle. Improve the educational messaging on the aerosol can happy to talk more about that. But also communication I'm writing articles. I wrote one that was published in sustainable brands this year on behavior change in recycling. So we're always trying to put out more thought leadership. Tell our story more. We also put out an aluminum beverage can recycling. rate Primer and roadmap will be explain how the aluminum beverage can became the most recycled beverage container in the United States and the world. But we're trying to reach new Heights. We're trying to get our recycling rate up to 70% by 2030. So this map explains how we're going to get there. So I helped write it and in collaboration with some of my colleagues and such and other people helped design it, but putting out those sort of pieces is what we do as well. And then fortifying messages through recent. That's another thing where we're doing research to better understand the current state of play. For instance, with the aerosol cans, we did a piece of research where we interviewed material recovery facilities, right? That's sort of single story recyclables. We interviewed end markets that buy the material from the MRF's and other places to process to understand what is holding back. More aerosol can recycling so that we had a foundational piece of research and they could act on it. We did that as well on the aluminum beverage cans side, where we did a piece of research. People can see it at www.canrecycle.com slash cans, strive, recycling, where we, this research found that aluminum beverage can revenue drive. Material conference facilities. They need it in order to operate because they're sorting the material out. They sell it. And that revenue from the used beverage cans is very important to them. And yet they're missing. The aluminum beverage cans up to one in four. So we launched a grants program last year in 2021, where we gave out five grants with funding from beverage can manufacturers, Ardagh metal packaging and crown holdings. And with just those five grants, we're going to get 71 million aluminum beverage cans recycled each year that otherwise might've been restorative. So we ended that research first and then we launched a program and I feel like that's a good way to go about it. So yeah, that collaboration, the communication, the fortifying, the messages to the research. That's what I've spent a lot time.
Cory Connors:That's amazing. I live in Oregon where we have the first deposit system for four cans. They're now worth 10 cents a piece, which is a big debate in the world of recycling. But do you see that as part of the future of in improving sustainability of cans is adding those, that deposit system?
Scott Breen:We see deposit systems is critical to raising our aluminum beverage can recycling rate and meeting some of those targets. I mentioned. So you talked about being an Oregon where there's that 10 cent redemption having that increased redemption means. A larger financial incentive for people to return their containers. So the average recycling rate for aluminum beverage cans, and then the 10 states that have a deposit is 77% Oregon's is higher because of that higher incentive. And then in the rest of the states, it's more like the mid thirties. So it's a stark contrast, right? And because we're serious about getting our rate up and meeting our targets that has led to. Being more active on the deposits front. And we actually put out an article late last year and I've had with rLoop, they're an international circular economy, nonprofit, and also us public interest research group. They're an advocacy organization, but three of us teamed up, wrote this out that in market watch that essentially said deposits are important to getting beverage containers back. Here are some principles to. Making a well-designed deposit system and there should be a national deposit system. So that is what we came together to say. And I mentioned collaboration. I mean, I feel like if we said that on our own, it wouldn't have been as powerful. So I'm very appreciative to when organizations are willing to work with us and we can come out with something together and make something happen.
Cory Connors:Exciting. And I think you're right. I think it will, hopefully it will be a national program someday. Certainly we'll be more states jumping on board. I've heard about a few in the works already. But I agree with you totally.
Scott Breen:And you have you found it convenient and Oregon, when you're returning your containers, do you do the backdrop? Yeah,
Cory Connors:we do bottle drop and it's you know, they, they give us bags, we bring them in, we don't even have to put them in the machine. We drop them through the door and they send us your business credit and they recycled the back. And to me. So sustainable. I always tell people, I don't remember the last time I saw can and in a ditch here in Oregon, because
Scott Breen:yeah. Yeah, that's huge. Now he is as a person. Right. And you don't necessarily want to see that litter, but talk about the savings. Like municipality send many nationally lots and lots of money. Millions, I think billions on litter cleanup. So you can help reduce that spend if you get it collected via the deposit system. Yep. I caught a material, get it recycled. So, and one other cool thing with the Oregon system is you've probably seen, you can actually have your money donated, right? Like I think I saw that they were doing a thing for Ukraine, you know, where you could say, Hey, it said send my money over there. And I thought that was pretty cool.
Cory Connors:Yeah. We donate those to our charity that we work with called Candlelighters For Children With Cancer and a local local charity here in the Northwest, they would appreciate any support from anyone who's listening. Yeah. A great program that helps families affected by pediatric cancer. So, but you're right. Yeah. They give you a blue bag and a sticker with a UPC code on it that says Candlelighters and. And then that money goes to them. So it's just really cool. And it looks so definitely something we should consider nationally. I think I agree. So are aerosol cans.
Scott Breen:Oh, yeah. You just got to empty them before you put in the recycling most recycling programs except them use the check first to make sure. But most acceptable, you just got to MTM, both aluminum and steel. I always
Cory Connors:thought they were, and I always recycle them, but I was concerned that that was with our numbers. Yes. Yes. We're a part of your solution for sure. I'd like to talk about how companies should focus their time and efforts on sustainability of packaging. Can you speak to that a little bit?
Scott Breen:Yeah. I mean, for me, the main point that I often make on this is that it's important to not just set goals, then you're going to be, have a hundred percent recyclable or compostable packaging. Right. And I feel like we've seen companies say that more and more, and that's a great first step, but I think there are additional steps that companies need to take one. I think. Doing a material flow analysis, understanding where your packaging is going and where it's being lost. We actually did that recently for, for the candidate tree. And we did it not just for cans. We did it with glass bottles and PT bottles in the United States. So we could see where everything's going and probably the coolest part of this research. It created a shinky diagram it's called where it's visually shows where everything goes. So if any listeners want to see this cannedcentral.com/recyclingunpacked, and the top line finding was that aluminum beverage cans are the most circular container in today's system. And then it also did some. Of what of the three containers I mentioned would have the largest greenhouse gas emissions savings, and three recycling systems of the future. So a hundred percent collection, a hundred percent rotation, and the national deposit system, as we were talking about earlier. And then all three limited beverage can deliver the highest greenhouse gas emissions savings. So courage people check that. Another thing that people can do is they, the companies should be seeing if the packaging that they're putting out there, not only is it technically recyclable and is it being recycled through the material flow analysis, but is it worth enough money that it's paying for the cost of its recycling? I mentioned earlier that without the revenue from used garbage, most Murph's be. But another way in the recycling partnerships, 2020 state of Curtis had report. There's a table there. If you, if you crunch the numbers, you see that aluminum beverage cans, they represent only 3% by weight. Of all the recyclables generated single family households in the United States, but in terms of revenue, they're just less than half. So 3% I made, but just less than half of the revenue of all the recyclables at single-family houses in the United States. So people should think about their pack, what their value is for the packaging. And then the last thing is the environmental impact of actually recycling it. And so aluminum beverage cans. If you make a beverage can from recycled material, it's 80% less greenhouse gas emissions than if you made that beverage came completely from Virgin or new material. Right. And we actually realize a lot of that savings today because the, the aluminum beverage cans produced in north America. The average recycled content is 73%. So it, which is really high compared to some other container types. And then with steel food cans, if you make those from recycled material, it's 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions, and he made it with Virgin material and with both of them in steel metal, recycled forever. Right? So you can keep getting these savings and have the material keep going around, around. People to put in the bin. And so those are things I think companies need to do. And so some alternative metrics people can consider what percent of my packaging is above a certain value per ton. What percent is primarily made of material that doesn't degrade during the recycling process? What percent of my packaging is primarily recycled into the same kind of packaging or other useful, easy to recycle products. And one last thing I want to say is that with aluminum beverage cans, And this point of what is it recycled in to 93%. Of the aluminum beverage cans are recycled in the United States become new cans. They're very circular and we recycled nearly 90,000 aluminum beverage cans a minute in the United States. And over the course of a year, that's like 11, 12 packs per. Per year being recycled in the United States, like say 93% of the time in a new camp. So it's a domestic circular count here. And if people wanna learn more about some of the points I'm making here, I did write an article for GreenBiz. I mentioned, you know, writing articles is one of the things to try to do the headline is moving beyond 100% recyclable goals. So people can check that off. They're interested in.
Cory Connors:Well, that's incredible. Totally impressive. And those numbers are even higher than I thought. And I thought they were really, really high. So kudos to the can manufacturers and a well done. Keep
Scott Breen:it up. The scale is amazing, but we can do better. Right. We just gotta get more cans for the recycling recycle. In 2020, it was only 45%. When half a cans go in a landfill, given the terminal and economic impact I've been talking about, it's a shame and we're doing our part to try to change that. And I think the quickest way to change that dynamic would be a new device.
Cory Connors:Yeah, I agree. And, and such a simple method. It's it we've proven it works. Let's do it in other states. So yeah, well done. Well, a flip side to this is the cans have become so popular that manufacturers struggled to keep up with demand. Do you, do you see, how do you see that coming through here?
Scott Breen:There's no doubt about it. That there's unprecedented demand for metal containers and rightfully so for the environmental and economic impact I've been talking about that you can, most every recycling program takes aluminum beverage cans, steel food cans, because they're worth a lot and they're easy to separate out. Right. So I don't think that's going to change. I think people are going to keep wanting their packaging and. With materials that they can easily put in the recycling bin and that have this impact. And so we're trying to keep up right. And meet that demand for our members, customers, which are the brands who then sell it to people like you and me and give you some numbers how we're trying to keep up. So according to public attention, CMI members have committed to opening eight new aluminum can manufacturing facilities in the United States. And some of these facilities will come online later this year and CMI members are also increasing production in another four locations. So by the later part of 2023, CMI calculates total domestic industry production capabilities increase more than 40% above the 2020 unit volumes. So 2020 and 2023, 40% above. At 40% growth. I mean, that's, that's a very massive increase from facilities that take millions of dollars and quite a bit of time to put together right
Cory Connors:at it totally makes sense, because like you said, it's, it's the most sustainable or one of the most sustainable options. And if not the, you know, I'm sure we could debate, but I am absolutely impressed and amazed. My friend David CAPA just started a company called DigiCon, where they print directly onto cans in small volume and or even large volume now. But to me, it's it's incredible what what's, what can be done without packaging.
Scott Breen:Totally. And that's you talk about the digital printing? I think that's great, but more generally, however, you're printing. We like to say that the can is a 360 degree canvas. You can put whatever you want on that and get the consumer's attention. And there's even some innovation in terms of being like tactile, that feels different in addition to having eye catching graphics. So there's a lot of cool stuff. And you even think about certain cans, the tabs, a different color. It says something fun on it. Right? You can play.
Cory Connors:I'm impressed with that. There's a couple of brands that are doing green or black or different colored pull tabs. I know that's not easy to do so. Well then my company Landsberg Aurora is a manufacturer of cans in Melbourne Australia. And so we absolutely. That for our packaging. Great. Happy to hear it. Yeah. So how, how do people get in touch with you if they have questions or want to contribute to the.
Scott Breen:So good way to get in touch with me specifically is on LinkedIn. You can find me there and then I try to post pretty regularly, actually have a thing where I try to post on Monday about sustainability, Wednesday, about recycling and Friday something I'm up to that helps keep me learning and honest and sharing and engaging with people. So please find me there. Can manufacturers Institute and encourage people to go to cancentral.com. We've got a sustainability part of that website with a lot of information. The research I mentioned, we have a sustainability communications toolkit for instance, where it's got our best stats with the sources, for the stats, as well as downloadable graphics people can use on social media newsletters whenever they want. And then in terms of on social it's@cansrecyclable on Twitter and Facebook, and then can manufacturers Institute.
Cory Connors:Well, that's a lot of ways to get in touch with you. I love that. It's
Scott Breen:all of it's the company's done
Cory Connors:well. It shows us how important cans are and for sure it's an impressive packaging. The, the strength of a can has always impressed me. You know, How much vertical strength that can hold I've had some breweries as customers in the past, and to see how many pallets of cans that can stack up full of beer is amazing. Wow.
Scott Breen:No, it is amazing. And in fact, it's delivering that performance and strength with less. We've used metal quite a bit with lightweighting and such. So I think that's been impressive too.
Cory Connors:Yeah. Well, well done. And thank you again for being on the show. Thank you. Landsberg Orora for sponsoring this episode. If you're listening, please take a minute to subscribe and give us a rating. We appreciate it. Thanks again, Scott. Thank you.