Yorkshire pupil takes home first prize in national recycling competition
Daisy Goddard-Dickinson, a year 6 pupil from St Nicholas CofE Primary School near Ripon, has scooped first place in a national competition run by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro).
Organised as part of ‘Bin-fluencers’, an educational programme aimed at KS3 pupils to help improve knowledge about recycling, the competition invited schoolchildren from all over the UK to come up with a novel design for a recycling bin that would encourage their classmates to think twice about throwing away their rubbish.
Perfectly answering the brief with her creative entry, Daisy’s design really stood out from the crowd. The judges were impressed with her imaginative approach and awarded her first place. Daisy’s prize will include seeing her winning design emblazoned on a brand new recycling bin, as well as taking home an iPad. Her classmates will also enjoy a £250 voucher to spend on books, art equipment and other supplies.
Miss Marlow, teacher at St Nicholas CofE Primary School, said: “When we heard about the Bin-fluencers programme, we were really excited to take part. The fun activities provided by Alupro were really engaging and got our pupils talking about the importance of recycling.
“Everybody enjoyed learning about what we should and shouldn’t do with our waste, as well as how making a few small changes can have a positive impact on the planet. We’re so proud of Daisy for her winning competition entry and we can’t wait to see her bin used by our children!”
Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, added: “With the ambition of increasing national recycling rates, educating the next generation is a really important task. Bin-fluencers is just one of many campaigns that we run to improve awareness and understanding in a fun and creative way. It seems to have gone down a storm with staff and students alike.
“We were really impressed with the entries that we received, but Daisy’s design really grabbed us. She’s a hugely deserving winner and we hope that the competition has inspired the entire school to think carefully about the importance of recycling.”
Bin-fluencers is a creative campaign that brings resource efficiency into the classroom. Aimed at KS3 pupils, the initiative explores the benefits of recycling, the unique properties of packaging materials and the link between consumption and the environment. Supporting teaching notes, fact-filled animations, curriculum links, quiz questions and challenge sheets are available to download from the Learning Aluminium website.
For more information about Alupro’s latest educational initiatives, visit www.learningaluminium.co.uk.
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Alupro announced as latest sponsor of the LARAC Wales Conference
Alupro, the aluminium packaging recycling organisation, has been announced as the latest sponsor of this year’s LARAC Wales Conference. Taking place on 9 July at the Leonardo Hotel in Cardiff, the event will bring together hundreds of local authority representatives to discuss the key issues around running an efficient waste and recycling service.
Delegates attending the one day event will have the opportunity to discuss Alupro’s award-winning consumer engagement campaigns. Alongside Masters of Infinity and Bin-fluencers, its school-age awareness programmes, the team will shine a spotlight on its hugely successful MetalMatters initiative.
Specifically designed to boost household metal packaging recycling rates, MetalMatters was first launched in 2012 and has since been adopted by 114 councils across the UK. The programme uses direct communications to drive positive behavioural change, with councils reporting a significant upturn in both the volume and quality of metal packaging collected for recycling.
Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, commented: “Wales currently sits third in the global league table for household recycling performance, reporting a 65% recycling rate and offsetting the release of more than 400,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per annum. While legislation has proven pivotal to achieving this, so too have the numerous initiatives implemented to raise awareness of the importance of recycling and inspire behavioural change – particularly when it comes to difficult to reach audiences.
“Having rolled-out our educational programmes in partnership with hundreds of local authorities across the UK, we know the impact they can achieve, as well as the knock-on effect to recycling volumes. With hundreds of engaged delegates set to descend on Cardiff for the LARAC Wales Conference, we’re looking forward to attending this year’s conference and discussing how we can help councils to further improve their recycling performance.
“While many local authorities will already be aware of our work, we have a number of exciting updates and developments ready to share, alongside the results of our latest campaigns and competitions.”
To find out more about MetalMatters, or to register your interest, visit www.metalmatters.org.uk.
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SUEZ AND ALUPRO ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP TO INCREASE AEROSOL RECYCLING
SUEZ recycling and recovery UK today announced it has entered a two-year partnership with Alupro, the aluminium packaging recycling organisation, as part of a roadmap to increasing UK aerosol recycling rates.
An estimated 650 million metal aerosols are used in the UK each year, with over 80% of these used in the home. Upcoming reforms to packaging recycling in the UK, including a deposit return scheme for drinks containers, Simpler Recycling in England and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), present an opportunity for the metal packaging sector to redouble their efforts to push metal recycling rates even higher than they are today (the aluminium packaging recycling rate for 2023 was 68%.)
The project aims to provide data and case studies on how to increase the capture, sorting and treatment of aerosols. The first phase, over the coming 12 months, will see SUEZ recruit three local authorities in different areas across the UK to monitor and analyse aerosol capture rates, ready for the next phase of the trial to start in 2025. The next phase of the trial will see a year-long sampling exercise measuring the quantities of aerosols collected through both the residual and recycling kerbside streams, as well as looking into the challenges of sorting and analysing aerosols collected through the kerbside system. Further, the year will see the trialling of a brand new communications campaign to consumers to boost aerosol recycling.
Research by Alupro has shown many people are unsure of how to dispose of aerosols and as a result, fewer aerosols are disposed of in household recycling collections, compared to most other forms of metal packaging. In 2023, the Environmental Services Association (ESA) found that 18% of the UK population admitted to throwing aerosols in their normal rubbish bin in the past year. This project will improve public knowledge around best practice recycling, establish a baseline recycling rate and roadmap for achieving higher future rates for aerosol recycling, and seek to stimulate substantial long-term investment into recycling infrastructure.
Through this partnership, SUEZ and Alupro will work together towards their goal of consumers recycling all their empty aerosols responsibly in their household collection service, with confidence that this will result in their packaging waste being collected, sorted, recycled and transformed into something new.
Partners
Led by Alupro, the UK Aerosol Recycling Initiative brings together partners from across the aerosols value chain. These partners include Suez recycling and recovery UK, Ball Aerosol Packaging, Trivium Packaging, the British Aerosol Manufacturers’ Association (BAMA), packaging compliance scheme Ecosurety, consumer brand Henkel, valve manufacturer LINDAL Group, The Materials Processing Institute, waste company CleanEco and processors of reclaimed metal Tandom Metallurgical Group Ltd and Tata Steel.
John Scanlon, Chief Executive Officer at SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, said: “We’re looking forward to working with Alupro on this exciting and important initiative to improve aerosol recycling in the UK. With the 50% aluminium recycling target coming in the near future under EPR, excluding drinks containers, it’s imperative that we maximise the recycling rates of aerosols, through establishing a baseline recycling rate and improving public understanding. We’re pleased to be partnering with Alupro to drive forward this initiative and share best practice with the sector through our research findings.”
Tom Giddings, Executive Director at Alupro, said: “This communications, collections and sorting trial represents the next big milestone on our roadmap to higher recycling rates for aerosols, and we’re delighted to partner with Suez, whose expertise in delivering innovative projects led us to approach them to help us with this. We’re excited to see the results of the trial as they develop and to use them to build a blueprint for higher recycling rates. Hopefully, the UK Aerosol Recycling Initiative will serve as a template for how responsible industries can collaborate to bring the circular economy to life; after all, metal is the perfect material for recycling again and again, so we should be minimising how much we waste!”
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Notes to Editors:
About SUEZ
SUEZ recycling and recovery UK employs over 6,200 people, operating across hundreds of sites, and handles approximately 11 million tonnes of waste materials every year – a significant proportion of the UK’s total waste. Through collection, treatment, recycling and logistics operations, it serves more than 30,000 business customers and millions of householders throughout the country. Please visit https://www.suez.co.uk to find out more.
About Alupro
Alupro is an industry funded, not-for-profit organisation with over 30 years’ experience representing the UK’s aluminium packaging industry. We work to fulfil the industry’s obligation to meet, and exceed, recycling targets for aluminium packaging.
We are achieving this by working in partnership with local authorities, the waste management industry and the wider metal packaging sector to develop and stimulate the UK’s collection infrastructure. We also manage and run consumer information and education campaigns to encourage participation in recycling schemes.
