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.