We completed four campaigns in 2012, working with 15 local authorities. Two programmes were developed which will complete in the coming months, meaning that the metals recycling message has directly reached 1.9 million households in the past 12 months. Of the 31 local authorities involved 13 have expanded their recycling schemes to include a wider range of metal packaging, including foil trays, empty aerosols, household foil and bottle caps and closures.

The first four campaigns have seen a growth in the percentage of metals arising in the recycling stream — in Sefton metal recycling rates rocketed by 64%.

With local authority budgets under pressure MetalMatters offers an effective and affordable way for local authorities and waste contractors to make people aware that their metals are endlessly recyclable. The 2012 campaigns cost less than 35p per household to run, falling to 19p per household for the Kent Waste Partnership scheme.

However we did face challenges. Collecting data from individual authorities in a format that enabled comparisons within and between the different programmes was the greatest, and one of the programme’s key focuses is to refine this over the next 12 months to provide clearer statistical analysis.

We made great progress in 2012, and it was encouraging to see the programme championed in Parliament by Lord de Mauley, Minister of Resources.

On the partnership front we are delighted that the programme has received funding commitments from individual manufacturers and trade groups involved in the metal packaging supply and recycling chain. MetalMatters is now a true industry partnership, and in turn is focused on developing meaningful partnerships with local authorities and their waste management contractors to deliver higher volumes of valuable metal packaging. To this end we will be returning to earlier campaigns during the coming year to assess the longer term impact of the programme on metal capture rates.

We will work to build on the success of 2012 and continue in our mission to get more UK households to make kerbside recycling a weekly habit.

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.