Metal Recycles Forever
Definition
Metal Recycles Forever™ is an independent packaging symbol intended for use across European markets as a consumer facing indicator to help promote and educate the public around the role and nature of metal in packaging, and its potential as a circular material.
Principles
The Metal Recycles Forever™ mark was launched in 2014 by Metal Packaging Europe, an organisation that represents producers and suppliers of rigid metal packaging across Europe. Many metals – especially those used in packaging such as steel and aluminium – are infinitely recyclable without any loss of quality. In Europe, approximately 75% of metal packaging is currently recycled and this is consistently re-used to create the same type of product as part of a circular process.1
Image: © Metal Packaging Europe, 2025
Metal Recycles Forever™ promotes the principle that once metal is in circulation, there is no need for additional virgin material to be added to improve strength and quality during recycling – unlike other forms of packaging materials such as plastic and paper. Metal is considered to be both the most recycled and recyclable material, and when compared to primary production from virgin sources, aluminium recycling reduces energy consumption by as much as 95%.2
Like plastic or fossil-based resources, metal is a non-regenerative and finite material, and its extraction is considered to be humankind’s ‘earliest and most persistent form of environmental contamination’, with mining waste contaminating global river systems for at least the past 7,000 years.3 Therefore, efficient closed-loop recycling should remove the need for further potentially damaging mining processes, although current UN analysis expects new global extraction of the earth’s raw materials to increase by as much as 60% by 2060.4
Implementation
The Metal Recycles Forever™ logo is currently implemented in 19 different languages, and used across various regional markets. Having the messaging in a single visual symbol makes it easy for brands and industry to communicate a consistent and cohesive message to consumers, and the logo is compliant with the 2024 EU Green Claims Directive, designed to protect consumers from greenwashing.5 Although a useful indicator for consumers, the logo can potentially cause confusion when applied to packaging that may be excluded from domestic doorstep recycling collections such as paints and varnishes.