16.09.2003

Recal promotes beverage can recycling in Poland

Successful summer campaigns organised by the Polish environment organisation

Poznán, September 16, 2003. This year for the first time, the Polish environment organisation, Recal, of which Ball Packaging Europe is a founder member, extended its recycling campaigns to include the lake region of Masuria. Recal was able to involve municipal and local government authorities as partners in the campaign for a “Clean Masuria”. This year a total of around 5,000 children and youngsters took part in Recal’s summer campaigns which focus on environment education as well as the collection and recycling of beverage cans. Some 300 tonnes of empty beverage cans were collected.

“Recal this year succeeded in establishing a new partnership with the Babia Góra National Park. We have therefore been able to extend our “Clean Mountains “ campaign which we have been running for the past three years in the Tatra mountains to include Sudetenland”, explains Lucyna Borowiec, Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the Recal Foundation and Environment Co-ordinator for central and eastern Europe at Ball Packaging Europe.

Under the patronage of Jan Kozlowski, Zygmunt Meyer and Stanislaw Wziatek, the chief officials in the administrative districts taking part, the beaches between Szczecin and Gdansk were cleaned up as part of this summer’s campaign.

“Our most important concern is environment education”, stresses Lucyna Borowiec. With the backing of the Polish environment trust NEF (National Environmental Foundation), Recal provides teaching programmes at some 900 schools in Poland. This year 120 kindergartens were also included for the first time.

Recal was established in 1995 by a group of European beverage can producers and aluminium suppliers under the leadership of Ball Packaging Europe (then Schmalbach-Lubeca/Continental Can Polska). The objective of the environment organisation is to promote environment education as well as the collection and recycling of beverage cans. The recycling quota of beverage cans in Poland has risen from under 5 per cent in 1997 to some 40 per cent in 2002 as a result of the various public relations campaigns organised by Recal.

Printable photographic material relating to this press release can be found in the Internet under the address: http://www.bpe-pictures.com/journalistene/ (Please input picture number 040118 in the full text search.)

You can visit Ball Packaging Europe at the Taropak 2003 from September 16 to 19 in Hall 2 / ground floor, Stand No. 39.

Forward-Looking Statements
The information in this news release contains "forward-looking" statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those expressed or implied. As time passes, the relevance and accuracy of forward-looking statements contained in this release may change. The company currently does not intend to update any particular forward-looking statement except as it deems necessary at quarterly or annual release of earnings. Please refer to the Form 10-Q filed by Ball Corporation on August 12, 2003, for a summary of key risk factors that could affect actual results or outcomes. Factors that might affect the packaging segments of the company are: fluctuation in consumer and customer demand; competitive packaging material availability, pricing and substitution; the weather; fruit, vegetable and fishing yields; company and industry productive capacity and competitive activity; lack of productivity improvement or production cost reductions; regulatory action or laws, including the German mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws and environmental and workplace safety regulations; availability and cost of raw materials, energy and transportation; the ability or inability to pass on to customers changes in these costs, particularly resin, steel and aluminum; pricing and ability or inability to sell scrap; international business risks (including foreign exchange rates and tax rates) particularly in the United States, Europe and in developing countries such as China and Brazil; and the effect of LIFO accounting on earnings. Factors that may affect the aerospace segment are: funding, authorization and availability of government contracts and the nature and continuation of those contracts; and technical uncertainty associated with aerospace segment contracts. Factors that could affect the company as a whole include those listed plus: successful and unsuccessful acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures and the integration activities associated therewith including the integration and operation of the business of Schmalbach-Lubeca AG, now known as Ball Packaging Europe; the inability to purchase the company's common stock; insufficient or reduced cash flow; regulatory action or laws including those related to corporate governance and financial reporting, regulations and standards; actual and estimated business consolidation and investment costs and the net realizable value of assets associated with these activities; goodwill impairment; changes in generally accepted accounting principles or their interpretation; litigation; antitrust, intellectual property, consumer and other issues; strikes; boycotts; increases in various employee benefits and labor costs, specifically pension, medical and health care costs incurred in the countries in which Ball has operations; rates of return projected and earned on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; interest rates and level of company debt, including floating rate debt; terrorist activities, war or catastrophic events that disrupt or impact production, supply or pricing of the company's goods and services, including raw materials and energy costs, or disrupt or impact the credit and financing of the company's businesses; and U.S. and foreign economic conditions.

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