Recycling programme extends sponsorship of UK professional women’s cycling team

As women’s cycling continues to gain momentum, recycling programme ‘Every Can Counts’ has furthered its investment into the UK based Trek-Drops professional women’s cycling team for the duration of the 2018 season.

This is the second consecutive year that the Every Can Counts programme, managed by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro), has supported the female riders having seen the sport as an emerging market which has similar values to its own.

In addition to partnering the team in the UK; additional support from industry bodies European Aluminium and Metal Packaging Europe (MPE) means the Every Can Cans programme has become Trek-Drops’ ‘lead partner’ across Europe. Every Can Counts will now actively support the team when they race in the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, France and Spain.

With just a small percentage of the women’s professional peloton actually receiving a wage, the support of sponsors such as the ‘Every Can Counts’ programme is key to the development of the sport.

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of the Every Can Counts programme, said: “Trek-Drops is one of a small handful of women’s professional cycling teams in the world that pays every rider in its team a wage. We are immensely proud to be associated with the team and in helping to play our part in the continued growth of women’s cycling.

“There is a real synergy between the core values of Trek-Drops and the Every Can Counts programme – and there’s the obvious natural link between cycling and caring for the environment. Aluminium and steel drinks cans are purchased by millions of people every day, including at sporting events. Recycling one tonne of aluminium saves nine tonnes of CO2 emissions – and one tonne is the equivalent to a car driving 2800 miles. Just imagine how much CO2 we would be reducing if we all cycled and recycled.”

Tom Varney, Team Director at Trek-Drops added: “We’re delighted to continue our partnership with Alupro and welcome the increased support from both the MPE (Metal Packaging Europe) and European Aluminium. This additional support via the Every Can Counts programme is a huge benefit to the team and will help us progress further this year. The riders and staff will be helping to encourage cyclists across Europe to do their bit to protect our environment by recycling their drinks cans – making every can count! We’re excited to continue to explore opportunities as to how we can spread this great message further.”

Every Can Counts will be at various races across Europe and the UK and will offer friends and family the chance to race against each other by taking part in their unique ‘Recycling Game’. Further information about the Recycling Game can be found here: https://youtu.be/UB_o-5Qj5WM

Hindley saw a boost in campaign profile thanks to the Every Can Counts presence at some of the UK’s most popular cycling events and he added: “We received a fantastic reaction to the Every Can Counts campaign and we look forward engaging with the professional female riders and the cycling public for a second year in 2018.”

Ends

For more information about Every Can Counts or to find out more about how your business or organisation can sign up to Every Can Counts visit www.everycancounts.co.uk or call 01527 597 757.

 

About Every Can Counts

Every Can Counts is a partnership between the European and UK drinks can manufacturers, and the aluminium recycling industry and leading drinks brands. The programme currently operates in 13 European countries.

www.everycancounts.co.uk/about

www.everycancounts.eu

You can also follow Every Can Counts on Facebook and Twitter.

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

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.

About MetalMatters

 MetalMatters is a proven communications programme designed to support the UK’s current kerbside recycling schemes. It can be run in a single local authority, to target a select demographic group (e.g. by ACORN or Mosaic classification) or across a waste partnership area. The programme educates householders about metal packaging recycling and aims to motivate them to recycle more at home.

The programme is funded by a partnership of metal packaging manufacturers, fillers and reprocessors and is delivered on their behalf by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro), with local authorities and their waste collection partners. www.metalmatters.org.uk