South London launches first MetalMatters campaign for 2013

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MetalMatters is championing household recycling in South London after launching its first campaign of 2013, to boost collection levels for metal packaging such as food and drink cans, aerosols and foil trays at kerbsides in the capital.

The innovative campaign is the first of its kind to launch in London, and involves two leaflet drops delivered six weeks apart to all 365,000 households across the four boroughs in the South London Waste Partnership — Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton.

Each Borough will run its own local community activities to back the campaign, which is also being supported with outdoor advertising splashed across buses, trams and collection vehicles.

The programme is designed to remind people that all of their household metal packaging can be recycled and reused endlessly, and turned into any type of metal product, from a paper clip to a washing machine, or another food or drinks can.

The South London campaign is being jointly funded by the metal packaging industry partnership MetalMatters, Recycle for London and recycling company Viridor, and it is the first programme that has received a direct financial contribution from a waste management contractor.

Commenting on the launch, Councillor Derek Osbourne, Chair of the South London Waste Partnership Joint Committee, said: “This is the first time that the MetalMatters programme has been implemented in London, and the campaign shows our commitment to increasing recycling rates and keeping valuable recyclables away from landfill sites.

“People in South London are keen to do their bit for the environment, and the campaign is a great way for us to encourage them to recycle household items such as food and drink cans and aerosols more often.”

Mike Stafford, Viridor’s Regional Manager, said: “I am delighted that Viridor is able to support the MetalMatters campaign. Supporting initiatives like this is at the core of our business and I look forward to seeing more metal packaging arriving at our facilities for recycling in the months to come.”

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of MetalMatters project managers Alupro, said: “The South London campaign is a great way to kick-off MetalMatters in 2013. We are delighted to be working with Recycle for London, and that Viridor have agreed to come on board and make a significant financial contribution to the campaign; it makes it a true partnership programme. We are looking forward to seeing the impact the MetalMatters campaign has on metal packaging capture rates.”

This MetalMatters campaign follows five other projects that ran around the UK in 2012. Over 2 million households have now been reached by the programme since Alupro was charged with project management by founding partners BCME, Novelis Recycling and Tata Steel in 2011.

MetalMatters launches most ambitious programme to date in Kent

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MetalMatters, the metal packaging industry-led programme designed to increase the capture rate for metal packaging collected at the kerbside, has launched its most ambitious campaign to date, in partnership with Kent Waste Partnership. The latest campaign sees the marketing communications campaign roll out across 12 local authorities in Kent. It will run until early December and will include two direct mail drops to each of the 630,000 households in the county.

Since its pilot in 2010 MetalMatters has been closely followed by policy makers, and featured in the Government’s Review of Waste Policy in 2011 as an example of Best Practice. Now recently-appointed Minister for Resources, Local Environment and Environmental Science Lord de Mauley has also given the programme his support.

Commenting on the launch Lord de Mauley said: “MetalMatters is a great example of how industry and local authorities can work together to engage local communities, drive up recycling rates and also support further development of our waste management and recycling sectors. The programme in Kent is on a very ambitious scale and we will follow this campaign with interest to see what it achieves.”

The Kent campaign includes leaflets, which will be sent to every home in all 12 districts, supported by locally-targeted advertising and awareness-raising events. Recycling vehicles and buses will carry the ‘make your metals matter’ message. The eight week campaign, which is managed by Alupro, is being jointly funded by an industry partnership comprising the UK’s leading producers, users and recyclers of metal packaging and Kent Waste Partnership.

Cllr Paul Barrington-King, Chairman of Kent Waste Partnership (KWP) said: “The partnership between the KWP and MetalMatters demonstrates the clear desire for Kent’s councils to work strategically and practically on improving the capture of valuable recyclates. The support of the Minister for the programme validates our supply chain approach is very much the way to go. It continues to place the KWP at the vanguard of supply chain thinking and activities’

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of Alupro added: “2012 has been an exciting year for MetalMatters, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to run the programme on such a grand scale in Kent. We are looking forward to seeing how the campaign develops and the impact it has on household metal packaging and attitudes to recycling.”

There have been five MetalMatters campaigns during 2012 covering 27 local authorities and reaching 1.5 million households.

Making Metals Matter

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So far this year MetalMatters has helped 15 local authorities and waste partnerships educate householders about the value of recycling metals in a bid to improve capture. The campaigns, developed by project managers Alupro in partnership with the local authorities, have so far reached 870,000 households in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Merseyside and Hampshire. Two further projects are currently in development.
MetalMatters developed out of a project by the Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME), WRAP, Novelis and Tata Steel to understand why, when over 95% of local authority residents have access to recycling schemes, capture rates are at a relatively low level.

The campaign encourages householders “to recycle more things more often” and focuses on the endless potential for ‘transformation’ that household metal packaging has, enabling it to be turned into an infinite variety of objects — from MP3 players to kettles and car parts and, of course, more packaging. It was named ‘Communications Campaign of the Year’ at the CIWM Awards for Excellence in 2011 and was cited in the 2011 Waste Policy Review for England and Wales as an example of ‘best practice.

In the past 12 months MetalMatters has attracted additional funding support from the packaging industry, and partners now include leading food and drink container manufacturers and major brand owners. Local campaigns have also received additional funding from central funds. Full details of the programme partners, and case studies of the projects carried out so far can be found on this website.

The results from the 2012 programmes will be published during Autumn 2012. If you would like to receive this information please subscribe here.