In packaging beverages, the environmental benefits of slim cans and traditional cans must be weighed from the perspective of the entire life cycle. Figures presented by the International Aluminium Institute show that slim cans has reduced aluminium usage by 12% through the application of tank thinning technology. The mass of a tank has reduced from 14 grams to 12.3 grams, and while producing 100 million tanks, 1,700 tons of aluminium consumption can be avoided. This reduced weight reduces diesel consumption in the transport process by 5%. For instance, considering the slender cans supply chain used by PepsiCo in 2022 across Europe, the moment the mileage on transport for every million slender cans reached 800 kilometers, the carbon dioxide emissions fell from 3.2 tons to 2.7 tons.
The efficiency of magnetic separation while recycling slender cans is 18% over that of traditional tanks. Statistics from the European Aluminium Foil Association reveal that its 94% recovery rate, as opposed to the 89% recovery rate of traditional cans, means that with the production of every 10,000 tons of recycling aluminium, 1,200 tons of bauxite mining can be eliminated. The tapered design reduces the compressed tank by 23%, significantly enhancing the loading efficiency of the recycling trucks. Real operation measurement of German Green Dot recycling system shows the single transport quantity increases from 4.8 tons to 5.6 tons, and the transportation frequency is reduced by 15%.
Energy consumption optimization is a result of the innovation in the production process. chic cans utilized the use of high-frequency electromagnetic shaping technology to reduce the stamping energy consumption from 0.35kWh/thousand cans to 0.27kWh/thousand cans. Ball Corporation’s Texas factory, an American manufacturer of aluminum cans, is an example of refurbishment that illustrates the production line with an annual output of 1.2 billion streamlined cans has reduced its annual power consumption by 420 megawatt-hours, equivalent to reducing 300 tons of carbon emissions. But it can be pointed out that the consumption of polyester materials during its coating process increases by 5%, and 85% of coating materials need to be segregated and recycled via chemical recycling technology.
From the carbon footprint calculation, estimates of the University of Cambridge’s Sustainability Laboratory show that the carbon emission throughout the whole life cycle of streamlined cans is 120g CO2e/can, 20% lower than the 150g CO2e/can for traditional cans. This advantage is higher in the cold chain category. Its space-efficient stacking pattern enhances the load carrying capacity of chilled containers by 18%. When Unilever began to utilize streamlined cans in its ice cream products, the logistics cost per batch decreased by 7%. Nevertheless, under the current worldwide aluminum can recycling system, 32% of streamlined cans are still incorrectly sorted due to incompatibilities in the identification system, and smart sorting equipment needs to be upgraded at a cost of 15 euros per ton.
Market application data shows that the penetration rate of sleek cans in the carbonated beverage field has reached 41%, but it only accounts for 19% in beer packaging. Tests conducted by Carlsberg Group in 2023 showed that its 500ml sleek cans product line increased the tank wall pressure-bearing strength to 620kPa through structural optimization, an increase of 12.7% compared to the traditional tank’s 550kPa. This reduced the damage rate of cold chain transportation from 0.7% to 0.3%. With the laser de-coating technology developed by IMPACT-Recycling in Switzerland, which has increased the purity of recycled aluminum to 99.92%, the closed-loop recycling system of sleek cans is accelerating its improvement.