BALL CORPORATION · NYSE: BALL · PUBLIC COMPANY BRIEF · 13 SEP 2026

From Mason jars to aluminum cans: what Ball Corporation makes now.

Ball's strongest material-transition lane is specific and measurable: 74% of the aluminum used in its Beverage Packaging business came from recycled sources in 2025, while the company is working toward 85% by 2030. Ball also reports STARcan at 56% of can production and more than 4,000 metric tonnes of aluminum saved through seven plant conversions. The next decision is a plant and customer-qualified input record, not another sector-level recycling claim.

Pure-play since Feb 2024 · Ball Aerospace sold to BAE Systems, ~$5.6B Evidence grade B · 17 TRI facilities matched, only 1 named in this source set Aluminum: infinitely recyclable, closed-loop supply chain

Ball Corporation

Public company brief

Public materials brief.

FY2024 revenue

~$11.8B

Reported · reported, current filing required

Aerospace exit

~$5.6B

Sale to BAE Systems, closed Feb 2024

2024 TRI facilities matched

Parent string “BALL CORP”

Named TRI facility lead

1 of 17

Waddell, AZ · candidate lead only

Sector tags

Aluminum packaging

Pure-play beverage cans

Company flow

Public evidence, arranged around the physical system rather than the corporate org chart. Ball Corporation's defining structural fact for this brief: a February 2024 divestiture completed a decades-long identity shift, from a diversified industrial parent that once built spacecraft hardware to a pure-play aluminum beverage packaging company. That shift, and how to read it, is the subject of this brief's bespoke tab.

01 · MATERIALS IN

Aluminum coil, recycled aluminum & coatings

Aluminum sheet and coil stock (much of it recycled), interior can coatings and linings, and printing inks are the public category signals for Ball's beverage-can manufacturing.

Public category signal

02 · MAKE

Beverage-can manufacturing, now the whole company

Ball describes one core business today: aluminum beverage packaging. The company's former aerospace and defense segment, and its former aerosol/personal-care packaging segment, are no longer part of current operations.

Company described

03 · PRODUCTS OUT

Aluminum cans, cups & bottles

Standard beverage cans across multiple sizes, specialty and craft-format cans, and aluminum cups and bottles for beverage brands. Aerosol/personal-care packaging was sold in 2022 and is not current.

Company described

04 · WASTE OUT

17 facilities matched, one named lead

A 2024 TRI parent-name match for “BALL CORP” returns 17 facilities and 9,090,700 lb of Certain glycol ethers in aggregate. Only one facility in this source set carries enough detail to name; see the waste tab.

Candidate lead, ownership not fully verified

What is public now

Current business Aluminum beverage packaging (cans, cups, bottles) for beer, soft drinks, energy drinks, and other beverage categories, sold globally

Ticker & identifiers NYSE: BALL · SEC CIK 0000009389 · legal name “BALL Corp”

Sector tags Metal & aluminum packaging · consumer packaged goods supply chain

Public plant signal 17 U.S. TRI facilities matched on the parent name in 2024; exactly 1 is named with enough detail in this source set (Waddell, AZ). The remaining 16 are excluded from any facility-level claim here.

Decision entry A named can plant or manufacturing platform is the workable starting point, not the parent brand, and not the raw 17-facility TRI match count

What the public record tells us

Revenue signal: The cited public sources's revenue figure of $2,747,000,000 is dated to the period ended 2017-12-31 and flagged “Missing or stale.” It is roughly a decade old and far below Ball's real current scale; it is not used anywhere in this brief. Ball's publicly reported FY2024 revenue from continuing operations, following the aerospace divestiture, is approximately $11.8 billion. That figure is labeled Reported here and should be confirmed against Ball's own current 10-K before it is cited in any client-facing material.

Do not use: a cost-of-revenue figure of $7,081,200,000 dated 2011-12-31 also appears in the same cited public sources. It is more than a decade stale and is not used anywhere in this brief.

R&D-type figure: $55,000,000 for the period ended 2023-12-31 is present in the cited public sources. It is more current than the revenue and cost figures above but still not the latest available year; treat it as Reported, pending confirmation against the most recent 10-K.

Regulatory and certification signals

Regulatory watchlist U.S. state container-deposit (bottle bill) and extended producer responsibility laws, EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, TRI, RCRA

Certification families Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) certification, ISO 14001

How to use this view Connect each requirement to the product, plant, material, jurisdiction, and effective date before making a transition claim

Circularity and recovery signals

Material innovation Aluminum is infinitely recyclable without loss of material quality; higher recycled-content can stock is a stated public focus area for the beverage-can industry

Recovery pathways The beverage-can supply chain runs one of the most mature closed-loop recycling systems of any packaging format; Ball is a large public buyer of recycled aluminum sheet and can stock

Commercial lens Recycled-content percentage by plant, and closed-loop collection volume by market, require facility- or program-specific evidence before a recycled-content claim is used

From Mason jars to spacecraft to pure-play cans: the 2024 aerospace exit

This is the tab that makes Ball's real structural history, not just its current product description, the point. Ball Corporation has changed what it makes twice at the scale of the whole company. Read past any source that still describes Ball as a diversified aerospace and packaging conglomerate; that description is no longer current.

Structural history note · read before citing any segment description of Ball

The three-part history, in order

1880

Founded as a glass home-canning jar makerBall began as a manufacturer of glass Mason jars for home food preservation, the origin of the Ball name still printed on canning jars sold today under license

Well-documented public history

20th century

Diversification into aerospace and defenseBall Aerospace built spacecraft components, remote sensing instruments, and other space-systems hardware, an unrelated business line sitting alongside Ball's core packaging operations for decades

Well-documented public history

2022

Aerosol and personal-care packaging divestedBall exited its aerosol and personal-care aluminum packaging business, narrowing its packaging operations toward beverage cans specifically; buyer and terms should be confirmed against Ball's own public filings before citation

Reported · verify buyer and terms in current filings

Feb 2024

Ball Aerospace sold to BAE Systems, ~$5.6 billionBall completed the sale of its aerospace and defense business to BAE Systems, publicly and completely exiting aerospace and defense

Reported, well-documented public transaction

What this means for reading any other source on Ball

Any residual reference elsewhere to Ball as a diversified aerospace, defense, or aerosol-packaging company describes a business Ball no longer owns. Since February 2024, Ball Corporation's current, ongoing business is overwhelmingly aluminum beverage can manufacturing. A directory listing, an old news article, or a stale database row that still shows an aerospace or aerosol segment for Ball should be treated as historical, not current, and should not be used to infer today's facility footprint, headcount, or revenue mix.

The aluminum circularity case: a different metal, a different story

Aluminum is infinitely recyclable without loss of material quality, unlike many other packaging materials that degrade with each recycling pass. The beverage-can supply chain runs one of the most mature closed-loop recycling systems of any packaging format in the world, and Ball is a large buyer of recycled aluminum sheet and can stock as an input to its own manufacturing. This is a genuinely distinct circularity story: it is a different metal from steel scrap and a different material system from recycled glass cullet, resting on aluminum's specific physical property of being recyclable indefinitely without loss of quality.

Exact recycled-content percentage by plant, and the specific closed-loop collection volume attributable to Ball's own supply chain, are not itemized in this source set. Treat any specific percentage as company reported and unverified here until pulled from Ball's current sustainability disclosure.

Materials entering the system

Category-level material families connect Ball's public product description to its manufacturing inputs. Recycled aluminum sheet and can stock is the standout circularity signal for this sector.

Public category signals

Material family	Feeds which product	Public signal
Recycled aluminum sheet & can stock	All can, cup & bottle formats	Genuine circularity input, public category signal
Virgin aluminum coil stock	All can, cup & bottle formats	Public category signal
Can coatings & linings	All can formats (interior/exterior protection)	Public category signal
Printing inks	Can and cup decoration	Public category signal

Financial scale context

The cited public sources's revenue figure of $2,747,000,000, dated to the period ended 2017-12-31 and flagged “Missing or stale,” is not used anywhere in this brief; it is roughly a decade old and far below Ball's actual current scale. A cost-of-revenue figure of $7,081,200,000 dated 2011-12-31 is even more stale and is also not used. Ball's real, publicly reported FY2024 revenue from continuing operations is approximately $11.8 billion, labeled Reported here pending confirmation against the current 10-K (SEC CIK 0000009389).

Material transition focus

The practical comparison set: recycled-aluminum-content percentage by can plant, can-coating chemistry (particularly any move toward lower-impact linings), and closed-loop collection volume by market, each evaluated at the plant or product-grade level, not the parent brand.

Reported residual, water & climate signals

2024 TRI data gives a facility-count, single-chemical, U.S.-only view. Seventeen facilities matched the parent name, but only one carries enough detail in this source set to name as a candidate lead.

17 facilities matched, 1 named candidate lead, plus company-reported ESG data

2024 TRI parent match: aggregate figures

Seventeen U.S. facilities matched the parent string “BALL CORP” in 2024 EPA TRI data, reporting an aggregate 9,090,700 lb of Certain glycol ethers. The category breakdown as recorded in this source set is 7,507 / 6,867,975 / 3,708 / 2,211,450 / 60 / 0. Assignment of each number to a specific TRI release or transfer category requires verification against the EPA TRI schema and is not asserted here.

Seventeen facilities matched is a parent-name count, not an owned-and-operated-facility count. Ownership and operating control have not been verified for 16 of the 17.

The one named candidate lead: Waddell, AZ

Ball Metal Beverage Container Corp, Waddell, AZ (TRI facility name as filed) reports Certain glycol ethers in 2024. This is the only facility among the 17 parent-name matches with enough detail in this source set to name here.

This is a candidate facility lead, excluded from any owned/operated count until ownership and operating control are verified. A shared parent-name match is not proof of current ownership or of operating control at this specific site; both require confirmation before this facility is cited as an owned-and-operated Ball plant.

Climate and recycled-content commitments

Ball publicly discloses greenhouse-gas reduction targets and recycled-content goals for its aluminum can business as part of its sustainability reporting. Treat any specific target percentage, baseline year, or recycled-content figure as company reported and unverified here until pulled from the current sustainability report.

Recycled aluminum: a genuine circularity input

Recycled aluminum sheet and can stock is a real, industry-standard input to beverage-can manufacturing, and aluminum's infinite recyclability without quality loss gives Ball's core product a genuine circularity angle distinct from a company merely stating a recycling aspiration. Exact recycled-content percentage by plant is not itemized in this source set.

Scope limitation

TRI parent-name matching only reaches U.S. facilities filed under a matched corporate name, only for listed chemicals like Certain glycol ethers, and only counts a parent-name match, not verified ownership or operating control. It does not capture total plant waste, water withdrawal, or emissions for Ball's full footprint, and it does not extend to non-U.S. sites. Sixteen of the 17 matched facilities are not named or itemized in this source set and are not claimed as owned-and-operated Ball plants here.

Regulatory watchlist, deposit laws & innovation signals

Aluminum beverage packaging sits at the center of the container-deposit and extended-producer-responsibility policy landscape in a way few other packaging formats do, because cans are the highest-value, most collectible fraction of the household recycling stream.

Jurisdiction	Framework	Trigger / status
United States (state)	Container-deposit (bottle bill) laws	A subset of U.S. states operate deposit-return systems covering aluminum beverage cans; the single largest structural driver of high-quality aluminum can collection in those states
United States (state)	Extended producer responsibility (EPR) packaging laws	A growing set of states have adopted or are implementing EPR packaging frameworks; applicability to aluminum can producers by state has not been adjudicated here
European Union	Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR)	Sets recycled-content, recyclability, and reuse requirements across packaging formats, including metal packaging; facility- and product-level applicability not adjudicated here
United States (federal)	TRI, RCRA	Facility-level chemical reporting; 17 facilities matched the parent name in 2024, only 1 is named with enough detail in this source set
Global	Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) certification	Voluntary, cross-supply-chain certification for responsible aluminum production and sourcing; a relevant certification family for a can-manufacturing supply chain, site-level certificate status not verified here

Regulatory applicability has not been adjudicated per site, product, or jurisdiction here. This is a watchlist, not a legal conclusion.

Certification families in play

Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) ISO 14001

Certificate number, site scope, and current expiry are not verified here. Certification-family relevance does not prove an active, in-scope certificate for a named plant.

Innovation signals

Recycled-content aluminumPublic sustainability messaging positions higher recycled-content aluminum sheet and can stock as a stated design direction

Can-coating chemistryDirectional public signal on lower-impact interior can linings; specific commercialized formats not itemized in current source set

LightweightingThinner-gauge aluminum can development to reduce material use per can is a stated public focus area across the beverage-can industry

Highest-leverage public opportunities

Each hypothesis connects a public materials, product, or recovery signal to a specific transition pathway, ranked by fit given Ball's real, post-divestiture footprint. Each is qualified only once a named plant or platform is attached.

Recycled-content aluminum sourcing transparency

Screening candidate

Document plant-level recycled-aluminum-content percentage in can stock so beverage-brand buyers can cite a specific, sourced recycled-content figure rather than a sector-average estimate.

Plant-by-plant recycled-content percentage disclosure
Recycled aluminum quality and contamination specification
Supply-chain documentation for a recycled-content claim

Waddell, AZ facility engagement

Qualification open

The one named TRI candidate lead is a workable starting point for a plant-level conversation about glycol-ether management, once ownership and operating control are confirmed.

Facility-level TRI submission review
Confirm current ownership and operating control before any outreach
Process-chemical recovery or substitution options

Can-coating chemistry substitution

Qualification open

Interior can linings are a known area of reformulation activity across the beverage-can industry; a named coating chemistry and plant are required before proposing a substitution pathway.

Named coating chemistry currently in use
Plant-level qualification and regulatory status
Brand-customer approval pathway for a coating change

ASI-aligned closed-loop collection documentation

Qualification open

Aluminium Stewardship Initiative certification and closed-loop collection-volume reporting are both plausible near-term documentation projects, but require a named plant or program before they become more than a category-level hypothesis.

Named plant or program with an active or pending ASI certificate
Closed-loop collection volume attributable to that program
Baseline year and methodology for the recycled-content figure

Priority opportunity

Start with the recycled-aluminum-content transparency gap, not a new material claim. Ball's core product already runs on a substantially circular aluminum input; the highest-leverage move is making that existing loop, plant by plant, documented and comparable, rather than pitching materials transition as a new idea. Recommendation: Pilot after evidence closure. Name one plant, one recycled-content percentage, and confirm the Waddell, AZ facility's current ownership before proceeding.

Evidence register. The sources below are the public record used for this brief. Company claims, facility matches, directional hypotheses and unresolved qualification questions are kept separate. A source does not establish ownership, operating control, customer status or a supply agreement by itself.

Public source trail

Every fact in this brief traces to one of these sources, labeled by evidence strength and scope.

S1 · U.S. EPA TRI

2024 U.S. TRI Basic Data Files. Facility, parent, chemical, and management quantities. The parent-name match for “BALL CORP” returns 17 facilities and an aggregate 9,090,700 lb of Certain glycol ethers, with a category breakdown as recorded of 7,507 / 6,867,975 / 3,708 / 2,211,450 / 60 / 0, pending verification against the EPA TRI schema. Only one facility, Ball Metal Beverage Container Corp, Waddell, AZ, carries enough detail in this source set to name as a candidate lead; the remaining 16 are not itemized here and are not claimed as owned-and-operated Ball facilities.

Open source →

S2 · U.S. SEC

SEC XBRL data in the cited public sources carries a revenue figure of $2,747,000,000 for the period ended 2017-12-31, flagged “Missing or stale,” a cost-of-revenue figure of $7,081,200,000 dated 2011-12-31, and an R&D-type figure of $55,000,000 for the period ended 2023-12-31. Only the last figure is used here, labeled Reported. Ball's real FY2024 revenue from continuing operations, approximately $11.8 billion, should be confirmed against the current 10-K (SEC CIK 0000009389).

Open source →

S3 · Ball Aerospace / BAE Systems transaction

Public reporting on Ball Corporation's sale of Ball Aerospace to BAE Systems, a deal valued at approximately $5.6 billion, completed in February 2024. Reported and well-documented; Ball's complete exit from aerospace and defense should be read as current as of this transaction's close.

Open source →

S4 · Company sustainability disclosure

Ball's own sustainability/ESG reporting: climate targets, recycled-content goals for aluminum can manufacturing, and closed-loop recycling program descriptions.

Open source →

S5 · Aluminium Stewardship Initiative

ASI certification standard and member/certificate information, the relevant certification family referenced in the regulatory tab for responsible aluminum sourcing and production.

Open source →

S6 · EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation

European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) text and implementation guidance, referenced in the regulatory tab for recycled-content and recyclability requirements applicable to metal packaging.

Open source →

Current source · 2025 Combined Annual and Sustainability Report

Ball Corporation, official filing. Added in the September 2026 evidence refresh. The source supports the bounded company-specific signal above; it does not establish a buyer, supply agreement, ownership, operating control or customer qualification by itself.

Open source →

Current source · Resource efficiency

Ball, official product stewardship disclosure. Added in the September 2026 evidence refresh. The source supports the bounded company-specific signal above; it does not establish a buyer, supply agreement, ownership, operating control or customer qualification by itself.

Open source →

Current source · Product stewardship

Ball, official circularity goals. Added in the September 2026 evidence refresh. The source supports the bounded company-specific signal above; it does not establish a buyer, supply agreement, ownership, operating control or customer qualification by itself.

Open source →

Current source · 2024 Form 10-K

Open source →

Source boundary

Scope: public TRI facility-match data (with only one facility named as a candidate lead), SEC XBRL and 10-K-adjacent revenue data, and well-established public knowledge of Ball's 2022 aerosol-packaging divestiture and its February 2024 sale of Ball Aerospace to BAE Systems. TRI is a single-chemical, parent-name-matched, U.S.-only view and, as with any parent-name match, a name match alone does not establish ownership or operating control. Entity-level detail sufficient to name a facility was available for only 1 of the 17 matched rows in this source set. Climate and recycled-content claims are company-reported and unverified at the certificate or plant level; every opportunity is a directional hypothesis pending plant-level evidence.

From Mason jars to aluminum cans: what Ball Corporation makes now.

Company flow

Aluminum coil, recycled aluminum & coatings

Beverage-can manufacturing, now the whole company

Aluminum cans, cups & bottles

17 facilities matched, one named lead

What is public now

What the public record tells us

Regulatory and certification signals

Circularity and recovery signals

From Mason jars to spacecraft to pure-play cans: the 2024 aerospace exit

The three-part history, in order

What this means for reading any other source on Ball

The aluminum circularity case: a different metal, a different story

Products leaving the system

Standard aluminum beverage cans

Specialty & craft-format cans

Aluminum cups & bottles

Aerosol & personal-care packaging (divested 2022)

What this product mix means for a materials-transition conversation

Materials entering the system

Financial scale context

Material transition focus

Reported residual, water & climate signals

2024 TRI parent match: aggregate figures

The one named candidate lead: Waddell, AZ

Climate and recycled-content commitments

Recycled aluminum: a genuine circularity input

Scope limitation

Regulatory watchlist, deposit laws & innovation signals

Certification families in play

Innovation signals

Highest-leverage public opportunities

Recycled-content aluminum sourcing transparency

Waddell, AZ facility engagement

Can-coating chemistry substitution

ASI-aligned closed-loop collection documentation

Priority opportunity

Public source trail

S1 · U.S. EPA TRI

S2 · U.S. SEC

S3 · Ball Aerospace / BAE Systems transaction

S4 · Company sustainability disclosure

S5 · Aluminium Stewardship Initiative

S6 · EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation

Current source · 2025 Combined Annual and Sustainability Report

Current source · Resource efficiency

Current source · Product stewardship

Current source · 2024 Form 10-K

Source boundary