Steel Packaging Facts
items
Steel is used to pack more than 1500 food and drink items as well as paint, health and beauty products and household products.
Source: CMI Institute
%
of UK households
99.4% of UK households buy canned food each year.
Source: Kantar
homes
If everyone in UK recycled one empty can of air freshener, enough energy could be saved to run a TV in 273000 homes for a year.
Source: Recycle Now
In 2019, the highest levels of canned food per capita consumption was registered in Ireland (40 kg per person), followed by the Netherlands (9.33 kg per person), France (5.78 kg per person) and Germany (5.43 kg per person), while the world average per capita consumption of canned food was estimated at 4.65 kg per person.
Source: Acumen Research & Consulting
%
food market
The EU canned food market increased by 3.6% to €7.7B in 2019.
Source: Global Trade Magazine
food cans
About 25 billion food cans are produced and filled in Europe per annum
Source: Science Direct
of lycopene
1 cup of canned tomatoes has 6641 mcg of lycopene compared to 4630 mcg in 1 cup of fresh tomatoes
Source: Cheerful Choices
Steel Facts
saved
Each tonne of steel that’s recycled saves over 2 tonnes of raw materials.
Source: Worldsteel
weight
Source: Recyling International
%
of energy
Recycling steel saves up to 70% of the energy needed to make steel with raw materials.
Source: European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform
%
still in use
Worldsteel estimates that 75% of steel products ever made are still in use today.
Source: Worldsteel
tonnes of scrap
56% of EU steel is made from scrap, with around 100 million tonnes of scrap steel recycled every year.
Source: Eurofer
Food Waste Facts
lost or wasted
Roughly 1/3 of the food produced in the world for human consumption is lost or wasted.
Source: FAO
tonnes of food
Around 1.3 billion tonnes of food – costing the global economy close to $940 billion each year.
Source: United Nations
per person
In the EU, almost 59 million tonnes of food is wasted every year. This equals 131 kg of waste per person in a year.
Source: Eurostat
%
of global green gas emissions
Food waste alone generates about 8% – 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Source: United Nations
place
If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitting country in the world. In other words: food waste emits more greenhouse gases than all single countries in the world except China and the US.
Source: FAO
%
used for wasted food
Around 1.4 billion hectares of agricultural land is used to produce food that is lost or wasted. That’s 28% of the world’s total agricultural area.
Source: FAO
hectares
An area the size of the US, India, and Egypt combined is used to grow food that is never eaten.
Source: The World Counts
food waste value
Besides the environmental effect of food waste, there are also economic consequences. The UN estimates the direct economic consequences of food waste to $750 billion yearly. And that’s even excluding fish and seafood. Counting fish & seafood the number is close to $1 trillion.
Source: FAO
%
of freshwater
Taking into account all the resources used to grow food, food waste uses up to 21% of freshwater, 19% of fertilisers, 18% of cropland, and 21% of landfill volume.
Source: Earth.org
greenhouse emissions
Food loss and waste account for about 4.4 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
%
root crops, fruits and vegetables
Breaking it down by food group, losses, and waste per year are roughly 30% for cereals, 40-50% for root crops and fruit and vegetables, 20% for oil seed and meat and dairy, and 35% for fish.
Source: Earth.org
people
If 25% of the food currently being lost or wasted globally was saved, it would be enough to feed 870 million people around the world.
Source: Earth.org
%
of fish are discarded
In Europe, 40-60% of fish caught are discarded because they do not meet supermarket quality standards.
Source: Earth.org
%
of global green gas emissions
Up to 10% of global greenhouse gases comes from food that is produced, but not eaten. Wasting food is worse than total emissions from flying (1.9%), plastic production (3.8%) and oil extraction (3.8%).
Source: National Retail Association
%
of fruit and vegetables are wasted
Almost half of all fruit and vegetables produced are wasted (that’s 3.7 trillion apples).
Source: WWF
In Depth Data
Recovery and recycling rate of packaging waste, 2021 (%)
Note: ranked according to the recycling rate
(1) Eurostat estimates.
(2) 2020
(3) 2019
Source: Eurostat (online data code: env_waspac)
Recycling rate of packaging waste, 2021 (%)
Note: ranked according to the recycling rate
(1) Eurostat estimates.
(2) 2020
(3) 2019
Source: Eurostat (online data code: env_waspac)
Food waste in the EU by main economic sectors, 2021
per inhabitant
Due to roundings, the sum of the values for the categories does not match the total
Source: Eurostat (online data code: env_wasfw)