First Star Recycling is installing new sorting equipment estimated to capture more than three million used beverage cans (UBC) a year that are missorted at its material recovery facility (MRF).
Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) funded the equipment as part of its efforts to capture more beverage cans at MRFs, making progress toward its aluminum beverage can recycling rate targets. Up to one in four UBCs are missorted in a typical MRF, which separates single-stream recyclables, even though UBCs are consistently one of the most valuable commodities in the recycling stream.
CMI has leveraged this high economic value of UBCs to finance can capture equipment while making some or all the money back from the recipient providing a share of the revenue generated from the cans captured.
CMI beverage can manufacturer members Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP) and Crown Holdings (Crown) provided funding for the first two revenue share agreements. They were EverestLabs robots installed on the “last chance recovery line,” which is the sorted material destined to go to landfill, at a Lakeshore Recycling Systems MRF in Chicago, Illinois and a Caglia Environmental MRF in Fresno, California. Both MRFs agreed to share 50 percent of the revenue from the cans captured by the robots.
“Investing in can capture equipment is a key component of our broader commitment to increasing recycling rates and improving the can-to-can loop,” said Sandrine Duquerroy-Delesalle, vice president of global sustainability and external affairs at Crown. “By prioritizing the recovery of infinitely recyclable aluminum, we help reduce unnecessary landfill waste and increase the beverage can’s current average recycled content of 71 percent, ultimately contributing to a lower carbon footprint for the U.S. beverage can manufacturing industry.”
The latest revenue share agreement is for a Green Machine eddy current at First Star Recycling’s Omaha, Nebraska MRF, which serves all of Nebraska and parts of Iowa and South Dakota too.
An eddy current uses magnetic forces to separate out non-magnetic metal like aluminum beverage cans from other recycled materials. This eddy current was paid for with funding from AMP and Crown, as well as the revenue received from the first two revenue share agreements.
“Once the principal is paid back to CMI, no more payments are required, and First Star Recycling will then own the equipment to continue using the eddy current to capture even more UBCs.
The financed eddy current, which is expected to be installed before the end of the year, will be the second in the facility and placed on the fiber line. In some cases, beverage cans are missorted to the fiber line if they are flattened or make it past the fiber line’s optical sorter.
Published November 2025