FE 40
The pack is steel. FE 40 tells a sorter the metal is steel, not aluminium (ALU 41). Steel is magnetic, which is how sorting plants usually pull it out of mixed recycling.
- Material
- Steel
- Code
- FE 40
- Family
- Metal
- Defined by
- Commission Decision 97/129/EC
Which bin, usually
Usually the cans-and-metal or mixed-recycling bin, emptied and rinsed. The US EPA says metal caps from glass bottles go in separately from the glass, not screwed back on.
Whether this goes in your recycling depends on your local collection; check your council or municipality's sorting guide.
The material
Steel, including tinplate (steel with a thin tin coating), the metal of most food tins. FE matches Fe, the chemical symbol for iron.
Where you see it
Food tins for soup, beans and pet food, many aerosol cans, crown caps on glass bottles, jar lids, paint tins and biscuit tins.
What it does not mean
FE 40 does not tell you whether an aerosol must be fully empty first or whether your collection takes aerosols at all; many only take empty ones.
The code names the metal; it says nothing about whether your collection takes that shape of item (a can, a foil tray, an aerosol, a tube) or whether it must be empty and clean first.
Other ways it is printed
- FE under a 40 in a triangle of arrows
- FE 40, FE40 or 40 FE in plain text
Other metal codes
Sources
- Commission Decision 97/129/EC of 28 January 1997 establishing the identification system for packaging materials (OJ L 50, 20.2.1997), as adopted — UK National Archives copy (Annex III: Steel, FE, 40) — checked 2026-09-23
- US EPA: How Do I Recycle Common Recyclables (Metal bottle caps on glass bottles) — checked 2026-09-23
Written in our own words from these public texts and checked on the date shown. ASTM D7611 and ISO 14021 are sold by their publishers; only their public catalogue text is used here.