Cumbria residents encouraged to recycle their metal packaging

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A new campaign promoting metal packaging recycling has been introduced by Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council. In a bid to improve kerbside recycling rates, households across the region are being encouraged to recycle their metal packaging including food and drinks cans, aluminium wrapping foil and foil trays, as well as empty aerosols and metal screw tops.

Spearheaded by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro), the ‘MetalMatters’ programme will use targeted social media messaging and bus advertising to communicate the widespread benefits of metal packaging recycling.

The six-week initiative is expected to reach more than 228,000 households across the two local authorities. Since its launch in 2012, more than 121 local authorities have adopted MetalMatters, with recycling rates improving as a result.

Councillor Denise Rollo, Cumberland Council’s Executive Member for Sustainable, Resilient and Connected Places, commented:

“Our goal is to drive recycling rates up 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 our Cumberland area, encouraging them to think about their recycling habits and how best to dispose of their metal packaging.”

Councillor Dyan Jones, Westmorland and Furness Council’s Cabinet Member for Customer and Waste Services, added:

“Many across Westmorland and Furness are already committed to recycling and reducing waste which is great news, but we can do more.

“This latest campaign encourages people to think about recycling more metal packaging found throughout their home, whether in the kitchen, bathroom or bedroom. Food and drink cans, foil and empty aerosols are all easily and endlessly recyclable.

“It’s worth remembering that every aluminium can you recycle saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours – so a small action like putting your empty baked beans can into your recycling container can make a big difference.”

Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, added: “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 Cumbria.

“For us, the most important message is that metal is infinitely 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 educated 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.

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Suffolk Waste Partnership launch campaign to improve metal packaging recycling rate

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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 112th 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.

 

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Consumer message testing with Teignbridge District Council

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Since 2012, the MetalMatters campaign has been deployed in over 100 local authority areas to 6.6 million households.

During the Spring and Summer of 2019, we undertook consumer research in an active campaign area in order to test the messaging and its’ impact on residents recycling behaviours.

We selected Teignbridge District Council in Devon which incorporates coastal towns and Dartmoor National Park.  The area has 62,000 households and operates a mixed kerbside recycling system.  The MetalMatters programme ran for twelve weeks, starting in March 2019 when the first leaflets were delivered to households; the campaign was supported by local roadshows, community displays, social media and via the Council website.

An independent market research agency surveyed 1,100 residents a month before the MetalMatters campaign began, and again afterwards.  The audience was ‘quota’ sampled to be broadly representative of the overall Teignbridge population, by age and gender, and conducted using a door stepping methodology, with only residents taking part in the survey.

The key findings when comparing the pre and post survey results:

  • 10% increase in households recycling foil lidding and wrapping foil
  • 5% increase in households recycling aerosols
  • 3% increase in households recycling sweet and biscuit tins
  • 18% residents were aware of the campaign (unprompted)
  • 32% residents recalled the leaflets and other communication materials (prompted by showing examples of the leaflets)
  • 90% of residents who recalled the leaflets thought them very helpful
  • 65% of residents who recalled the leaflets, retained them for future use
  • 56% of residents preferred a leaflet for receiving information

 

It is particularly reassuring that 32% of residents recalled the campaign materials; the market research agency suggested that for a campaign of this size and type, they would normally expect recall levels to be closer to 5-6%.  It was also interesting that over half of residents surveyed still preferred to receive information in leaflet form – the art of written communication is not dead yet.

 

Conclusions

  • The survey results indicate improvements in both household metal recycling levels and the understanding and awareness by residents of which household metals can be recycled by Teignbridge following the campaign.
  • While the current media coverage focuses on the need to recycle plastics, the awareness among residents of the importance of recycling household metals has grown.
  • Claimed recycling levels of food and drink cans continue to be high at around 99%, with other household metal items also increasing in recycling post-campaign.
  • The distribution of the information leaflet has been extremely impactful in carrying the recycling message to the residents of Teignbridge; it is also important to residents that a credible web presence is maintained to provide easy access to recycling advice.

 

We are encouraged by the findings in Teignbridge and look forward to announcing the campaign results later this year.

New recycling campaign urges people to make their metals matter

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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

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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.

 

Recycle Week 2019 is here!

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Are you ready for Recycle Week?   Join in the fun and sign up to make a real difference by recycling items from all around the home.

That is what MetalMatters aims to do; working in partnership with local authorities and waste management companies, the campaign engages directly with householders to encourage them to recycle metal packaging in their kerbside recycling system.

And why – because it matters.  Every positive action people take to increase recycling rates contributes to the bigger picture of making the world a more sustainable place.

Find out more at recyclenow.com

MetalMatters springs into action on Global Recycling Day

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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.

 

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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 1st 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

 

Newcastle-under-Lyme launch MetalMatters

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Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has launched a MetalMatters campaign to remind householders to recycle food and drink cans, foil, empty aerosols, foil trays and metal screw tops in their red recycling box.

Leaflets have been sent to 56,000 homes, recycling vehicles are now fitted with promotional signs and residents can find out more at several planned roadshows. Supporting messages will also be shared on social media.

Homes in the borough use more than 66 million cans, foil trays and aerosols every year – if all of this was recycled, it would be the equivalent to taking more than 382 cars off the road. Making drinks cans from recycled metal saves up to 95 per cent of the energy and greenhouse gas emissions needed to make both aluminium and steel from raw materials.

Cllr. Trevor Johnson, Cabinet member for environment and recycling, said: “Residents have formed very good recycling habits but we want to raise awareness about particular items that can have a massive impact on the environment as they are easily and endlessly recyclable. Every can recycled saves enough energy to run a television for four hours so a small action like putting your empty bean tin into your red box can make a big difference.”

The MetalMatters programme is an industry partnership involving leading producers, users and recyclers in the UK and is managed by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) on behalf of these funding partners. The MetalMatters campaign has been launched in 84 local authority areas and reached more than 5.5 million households since 2012.

Rick Hindley, executive director of project managers at Alupro, added: “It is great to be able to work in partnership with Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council 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 the borough.”

Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District pledge to ‘Make their metals matter’

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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.

 

We’re CIWM Awards finalists!

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MetalMatters has been announced as a finalist in the 2017 CIWM Awards ‘Most Effective Communications’ category.

These long-standing and well-respected awards are given for outstanding achievement in the sustainability, resource and waste industry.

Judged by the most respected experts in the sector, the awards represent the highest level of achievement and are entered and sponsored by organisations from all over the UK who are passionate about excellence and thought leadership.

Having won the CIWM Award in the same category for the MetalMatters pilot campaign back in 2011 we are hopeful that we can succeed again, although we do have tough competition from the other finalists in our category. Please keep your fingers crossed for us and we’ll keep you posted with the results.

The Award ceremony will take place in London on Thursday 2nd November.

A group of representatives from MetalMatters and Orkney Council holding cardboard cut-outs of metal packaging items in front of one of their recycling vehicles which bears the MetalMatters signage artwork.

One in five UK councils have chosen to make their metals matter

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Since the MetalMatters programme launched in 2012, one in five UK councils have chosen the campaign as a vehicle to deliver their recycling messages to householders and increase the metal packaging captured at kerbside: A total of 5.3 million households have now received MetalMatters messages directly through their door.

Nine councils have launched MetalMatters campaigns in 2017, and seven have been launched since the beginning of September. All are receiving funding support from the industry partnership and have been developed with programme managers, Alupro.

Bristol City, South Staffordshire, Calderdale (W. Yorkshire), Castle Point (Essex), Cheshire West and Chester, Orkney and West Dunbartonshire are all using MetalMatters to promote metal packaging recycling to their residents.   In total 592,000 households in the past month have been directly communicated with and encouraged to recycle their drink cans, food tins, foil and empty aerosols.

Councillor Fi Hance, Cabinet Member for Energy, Waste and Regulatory Services in Bristol said:                ‘We’ve had lots of interest in the MetalMatters campaign since it was rolled out across the city by Bristol Waste Company in September. Metal is a valuable resource for Bristol and we are looking forward to seeing the results.”

Orkney Council is Britain’s smallest local authority, with a population of just 20,000 and a recycling infrastructure that relies heavily on bring banks as well as kerbside collections. The attraction of MetalMatters was the opportunity to communicate directly with residents through two leaflet drops to every household. The campaign is being used by the Council to inform residents that it has added aerosols and foil containers to its collection scheme for the first time; so it hopes that the  combination of information, education and reinforcement of the campaign messages will prove to be a positive method of boosting recycling rates.

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of MetalMatters programme managers, Alupro says:

“We are thrilled that one in five councils in the UK have partnered with the MetalMatters programme so far. We are particularly pleased to be working with Orkney: the programme has been deployed in both urban and rural areas and has proved successful in all settings, but this is the first time we have worked with such a small population.” He adds, “to date, every deployment has resulted in a positive impact on metal packaging capture rates which clearly demonstrates that focussing on behaviour change will deliver significant increases in recycling rates.”

 

The campaign is based around a two-phase leaflet drop that informs and reminds householders about what and how to recycle, and explains what happens to metal packaging when it is recycled.   The remaining campaign elements are completely flexible depending upon the needs of the local council who can choose from a ready-made library of resources ranging from bin stickers to cinema screen adverts.

The programme is funded by a partnership of metal packaging manufacturers, fillers and reprocessors, industry organisations and compliance schemes and is delivered on their behalf by Alupro, with support from local authorities and their waste collection partners.