MetalMatters, the industry-supported campaign that encourages households to recycle their cans, foil, empty aerosols, trays, tubes and metal screw tops, has been rolled out by West Devon Borough Council.

As part of continued efforts to improve kerbside recycling rates, the initiative will see residents across the region receive an informative leaflet posted directly through their letterbox. Targeting more than 26,000 homes across the borough, the campaign aims to raise widespread awareness of how best to recycle used metal packaging.

Since its launch in 2012, MetalMatters has been adopted by hundreds of local authorities across the UK. Designed to support kerbside recycling schemes, MetalMatters can be run by any local authority, either region-wide, by collection round or even by demographic targeting.

Commenting on the announcement, Cllr Lynn Daniel, Lead Member for Environment at West Devon Borough Council, said: “Our goal is to increase recycling rates and reduce waste by identifying environmentally responsible ways to meet the needs of our local communities.

“MetalMatters will allow us to engage with residents across West Devon, encouraging them to think about their recycling habits and how best to dispose of their metal packaging. Metal is endlessly recyclable, so it’s one of the most sustainable materials that we have.”

Cllr Mandy Ewings, Leader of West Devon Borough Council, added: “Many residents are already committed to recycling and reducing waste, which is great news, but we can do more. It’s worth remembering that every aluminium can you recycle saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours – so putting your metal packaging into your recycling container can make a big difference.”

Tom Giddings, Executive Director of Alupro, concluded: “For more than a decade, our MetalMatters programme has been educating the public about the benefits and importance of recycling metal packaging. We’re confident that the introduction of this campaign will help to drive an increase in recycling rates and households taking positive action across West Devon.

“For us, the most important message is that metal is highly recyclable, meaning the quality and properties of the metal will be unchanged during the recycling process. Making a few small changes can add up to a big environmental impact.”

Funded by the metal packaging industry, MetalMatters aims to educate householders about the benefits of metal packaging and encourages them to adopt best practice recycling behaviours.

 ENDS

A new programme promoting metal packaging recycling has been rolled out by the Suffolk Waste Partnership. Homeowners across the region are being encouraged to recycle their food and drinks cans, aluminium wrapping foil and foil trays, empty aerosols and metal screw tops, in a bid to improve kerbside recycling rates.

‘MetalMatters’, funded by the UK metal packaging industry and managed by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro), will use a targeted social media programme, supported by an outdoor advertising campaign, to engage with householders and communicate the widespread benefits of metal packaging recycling. Suffolk is the 112^th local authority area in the UK to implement the programme, which has already reached more than seven million households across the UK since its launch in 2012.

The campaign will run for a 6-week period and is expected to reach many of Suffolk’s 350,000 households.

Cllr James Mallinder, Chair of the Suffolk Waste Partnership commented: “While we already encourage householders to recycle as much of their waste as possible, we knew there was more we could do. Working with MetalMatters will allow us to engage with residents in a creative way, encouraging them to think about how best to dispose of their metal packaging.”

Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, added: “Our MetalMatters programme has been running for more than a decade, educating the public about the benefits of recycling metal packaging and positively influencing kerbside capture rates. From prior experience, we’re confident to say that the Suffolk Waste Partnership will see a rise in recycling rates and householders taking positive action as a result of the campaign.

“After all, metal recycles forever, so making a few small changes can add up to a big environmental difference. It’s a message that really resonates.”

Funded by the metal packaging industry, MetalMatters aims to educate householders about the benefits of metal packaging and encourage them to recycle. Designed to support kerbside recycling schemes, MetalMatters can be run by any local authority, either region-wide, by collection round or even by demographic targeting.

 

ENDS

People from across Staffordshire are invited to join a new campaign to recycle more metal products found in their homes.

The ‘Make Your Metals Matter’ campaign wants people to recycle all the metal packaging found around their house, including food and drink cans, foil trays, empty aerosols and household aluminium wrapping foil.

It is estimated that around 400 million cans, foil trays and aerosols are used every year in Staffordshire. Used metal packaging can be recycled into new products at a far lower cost to the environment than making them from raw materials. For example, making drinks cans from recycled material saves up to 95% of the energy and greenhouse gas emissions needed to make both aluminium and steel from raw materials.

If all the metal packaging used in Staffordshire’s homes each year was collected for recycling it would save around 10,787 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent to taking 2,295 cars off local streets for a year.

Mark Winnington, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth at Staffordshire County Council said: “People in Staffordshire are already committed to recycling and reducing waste which is great news.

“We’re excited about this latest campaign and want to encourage people to think about recycling more metal packaging found throughout their home, not just in the kitchen but in the bathroom, and bedroom too. Food and drink cans, foil and empty aerosols are all easily and endlessly recyclable.

“And remember that every can recycled saves enough energy to run a TV for four hours – so a small action like putting your empty bean tin into your recycling container can make a big difference”

The campaign will include leaflets sent to 60,000 homes along with an online and social media campaign highlighting the benefits of recycling.

MetalMatters campaigns have run in over 100 local authority areas and reached over 6 million households since 2012. The Staffordshire campaign is being jointly funded by MetalMatters, an industry partnership comprising the UK’s leading producers, users and recyclers of metal packaging and Staffordshire Waste Partnership. The MetalMatters programme is managed by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) on behalf of the funding partners.

Rick Hindley, executive director of project managers Alupro, said: “It is great to be able to work in partnership with Staffordshire Waste Partnership to promote the recycling of metal packaging. This campaign has delivered significant increases in the amount of metal packaging collected for recycling in other parts of the UK, so we are aiming to repeat – and hopefully better this – in Staffordshire.”

People can find out more about recycling in Staffordshire on https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Waste-and-recycling/homepage.aspx

Ends

Photo captions L-R: Rachel Melvin from Staffordshire County Council’s Waste Management team, Julie Meeks from Alupro and Mark Winnington, Cabinet Member for Economic Growth at Staffordshire County Council.

 

*6 Waste Partnerships taking part in the campaign: East Staffordshire BC, South Staffordshire DC, Tamworth BC, Staffordshire Moorlands DC, Lichfield DC and Cannock Chase DC.

 

** Number of packaging items is based on: 600 food tins, 380 drinks cans. 182 foil trays and 27 empty aerosols thrown out by an average household annually (1189 items), multiplied by the approx. number of households 336,000 in Staffordshire.

 

***CO2 equivalence based on: The average household consumption of steel and aluminium packaging across households in Staffordshire, the CO2 saving if this entire quantity was recycled and the average emission of CO2 from a standard car per annum. Actual calculations are available from Alupro.

 

As we celebrate Global Recycling Day, three UK Councils are launching their MetalMatters campaigns.

As more and more people across the UK shift their focus towards recycling today, Merthyr Tydfil, Powys and Teignbridge District Council in Devon will urge a total of 157,000 households to ‘Make their metals matter’.   Starting today, and for the next 12 weeks, residents will be encouraged to recycle all of their drink cans, food tins, empty aerosols, foil and foil trays in their kerbside recycling bins.

Every household will receive leaflets about MetalMatters and the campaign will be supported through local roadshows, outdoor advertising, social media and even a competition to win family tickets to Devon’s top attractions for lucky residents in Teignbridge!

Following the ‘Closing the Loop: Four steps towards 100% aluminium packaging recycling’ report published last week by Green Alliance¹, these campaigns could not be more timely.

Rick Hindley, executive director of project managers Alupro, said:

‘The Green Alliance report indicated that only 13% of aerosols and foil are currently collected for recycling and considering that on average UK households use 27 aerosols, 182 foil trays and 144 metres of wrapping foil per year, it is a great opportunity to divert this valuable metal away from landfill and back into the recycling loop.   Aerosols and foil are also the two most likely items to cause confusion for householders regarding recycling which is why it is so important to clarify their recyclability and highlight the importance of recycling metal packaging² ’

The three campaigns are being jointly funded by MetalMatters, an industry partnership comprising of the UK’s leading producers, users and recyclers of metal packaging and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, Powys County Council and Devon County Council respectively.   MetalMatters is a shining example of how industry and local authority collaboration can provide a much needed communications boost to improve metal capture rates and reduce contamination.

Launched in 2012 the programme has been deployed in 99 local authorities and directly communicated with over 6 million households to date.

 

ENDS

 

Pictured: MetalMatters launch with Powys County Council L-R: Nicola Jones, systems and communication manager, Tata Steel; James Thompson, senior waste awareness and enforcement officer, Powys County Council; Kate Cole, programme manager, Alupro.

¹ Green Alliance report, ‘Closing the Loop: Four steps towards 100% aluminium packaging recycling’

² WRAP Recycling Tracker Survey 2018

 

 About MetalMatters

MetalMatters was developed and is funded by the metal packaging manufacturing industry, reprocessors and fillers. The programme works in partnership with local authorities and their waste collection partners to promote metal packaging recycling, and thereby improve capture rates for metal packaging at the kerbside. The MetalMatters programme is supported by WRAP. MetalMatters is being managed on behalf of the funding partners by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro).

For details of MetalMatters campaigns and case studies visit www.metalmatters.org.uk

 

 

MetalMatters funding partners (at 1^st March 2019)

 

Industry organisations Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME) British Aerosol Manufacturers Association (BAMA) Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association (MPMA) European Aluminium Association (EAA)	Household foil manufacturers Cofresco ITS Melitta WrapEx Ltd
Brands Marks & Spencer	Metal packaging manufacturers Ardagh Group Guala Closures Ball Packaging
Compliance schemes Ecosurety Limited Valpak Ltd	Metal reprocessors Novelis UK Ltd Tata Steel
Foil container manufacturers Coppice Alupack Nicholl Food Packaging i2r Packaging Solutions	Packer/fillers Unilever

The Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service between Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council have launched the first MetalMatters campaign of 2018, to all 119,000 households in the area, with the aim of increasing metal capture rates through kerbside.

Each household has received a MetalMatters leaflet directly through their door, featuring visuals that demonstrate the types of shiny new products that can be made from metal packaging found all around the home, such as cans, tins, foil and empty aerosols.   Supporting communications include signage on collection vehicles, local roadshows and a social media campaign to reinforce the MetalMatters messages.

Executive councillor for Environmental Services and City Centre at Cambridge City Council, Cllr Rosy Moore said, “This is a timely campaign – we have recycled a respectable 53% of household waste so far this financial year but we are keen to maximise use of our resources in order to maintain a high standard of service for residents – capturing and recycling more high value materials is a great contribution to that end.”

MetalMatters, now in its sixth year, has communicated with over 5.5 million households across 84 local authority areas to date. The industry-funded programme has seen impressive results with an average increase of 12-18% in metal packaging capture rates, with some councils achieving increased rates of 25-28%.   With the revenue from the additional metals collected, authorities have seen a speedy return on their investments, the majority covering their costs within 12 months.

Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Cllr Mark Howell, said “We are delighted to be launching MetalMatters across Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire, we are confident that the campaign will have a significant positive impact on the behaviour of our recyclers, providing a boost for our metal packaging recycling figures and hopefully our overall recycling rate too.”

The Greater Cambridge campaign is being jointly funded by MetalMatters, an industry partnership of the UK’s leading metal packaging manufacturers, fillers, reprocessors, industry organisations and compliance schemes and The Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service.