At this week’s BAMA Innovation Day (19 April, Royal Armouries, Leeds) Alupro officially launched its “Roadmap to increasing UK aerosol recycling” – a long-term strategic vision to drive a widespread uplift in national capture and recycling rates.

Developed on behalf of The UK Aerosol Recycling Initiative, a working group comprising partners from across the value chain, the document outlines five key challenges preventing higher aerosol recycling rates and details a proposed solution to tackle each head-on.

These include improving data quality through vigorous sampling of materials at MRFs, driving an uplift in kerbside volumes by establishing collection consistency, investing in new pathways to treat non-empty containers, increasing consumer education through standardised labelling, and improving the overall design of aerosol containers to optimise the value in recycled materials.

In addition, the roadmap also presents the results of extensive consumer research, analysis from local authorities and in-depth interviews with key industry experts, with the aim of clarifying best practice to maximise capture rates in a post-EPR, post-DRS landscape. Available to download from the Alupro website, the report aims to inspire sustained collaboration between government and the wider supply chain.

Tom Giddings, executive director at Alupro, commented: “Launching our roadmap comes as part of The UK Aerosol Recycling Initiative’s continued work to improve consumer education, identify solutions to maximise recycling rates and secure long-term investment into further improving national recycling infrastructure. Our simple goal is to see aerosols become a central part of recycling behaviour in the waste management landscape of tomorrow.

“Alongside presenting first-to-market research, we’ve proposed a series of five major priorities that will prove pivotal to increasing aerosol recycling rates. There are some clear obstacles, but also simple solutions that will help us – as an industry – to overcome them.

“To maximise momentum, we’ve shared the roadmap with key government figures, as well as the wider industry. As a group, we have big plans for the future and continue to welcome new partners who share our ambitions.”

Download a copy of the summary report “Roadmap to increasing UK aerosol recycling” here. For more information about the UK Aerosol Recycling Initiative, visit: https://alupro.org.uk/industry/programmes/the-uk-aerosol-recycling-initiative.

ENDS