Earlier this month (July), Alupro launched its impact report for 2025. The Chain Reaction: Turning change into impact presents the latest results from its consumer engagement initiatives and explains how behavioural change is helping to turn everyday actions into lasting legacy.

A key theme of this year’s report was the role of collaboration in driving progress towards achieving a truly circular packaging economy. Indeed, as the packaging sector navigates a complex period of regulatory change, collaboration between government and industry is becoming increasingly critical to bringing together the value chain and driving measurable national change.

According to data presented within the report, the UK collected 150,684 tonnes of aluminium packaging for recycling in 2025, saving 1.3 million tonnes of carbon by using recycled material to make new products. Alupro’s consumer engagement programmes proved instrumental in achieving this volume, by improving consumer education, encouraging best practice and inspiring positive behavioural change.

Its Every Can Counts initiative, for example, was responsible for encouraging 12.5 million consumers to recycle their beverage cans, with the team’s attendance at 15 major festivals helping to spread best practice on-the-go recycling messaging. Teams wearing recycling backpacks at each of these events personally collected more than 70,000 cans, which would otherwise have been landfilled.

A favourite among local authorities, the past 12 months saw Alupro’s MetalMatters campaign rolled out across Somerset and Calderdale, directly communicating with more than 350,000 households with the ambition of delivering positive behavioural change and increasing kerbside collection volumes.

Elsewhere, Alupro’s education campaigns reached 43,000 students (an uplift of 10% compared to 2025) and drove 180,000 visitors to its website, while its ‘Foil in Love with Recycling’ initiative helped to communicate positive sustainability messages to over 112,000 households across Westmorland and Furness.

Delivering upon its role as the voice of the aluminium packaging industry, the Alupro team also attended three parliamentary events, delivered 11 speaking slots, engaged with 1,100 policymakers and helped to achieve £8.1 million in savings through a significant reduction in EPR cost for aluminium packaging. In total, Alupro inspired change through partnerships with 69 different local authorities in 2025.

Finally, its UK Aerosol Recycling Initiative (UKARI) saw four councils collaborate through pilot campaigns and sampling activities, while the wider programme delivered an impressive 24% national increase in aerosol capture rates at the kerbside.

In comment, Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, commented: “We’re delighted to launch our latest impact report and provide further insight into the important work that we deliver. It’s important that we target our focus towards the biggest challenges and opportunities that our members are facing. This report is a great way to demonstrate and evaluate the progress we’re making towards achieving ambitious national goals.

“Alongside successfully rolling out behavioural change initiatives across all four corners of the UK, our public affairs work in 2025 saw the aluminium packaging supply chain benefit from more than £8 million in cost savings. This demonstrates the tangible value that we deliver to our members and the positive progress we’re making towards enabling a truly circular packaging economy.”

To read the Alupro Impact Report 2025 click here.

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Alupro has announced Promet as its latest member. Operating from a state-of-the-art 40,000 sq ft reprocessing centre in Sheffield, the business produces, trades and supplies all grades of furnace and foundry-ready scrap for domestic, European and global customers.

Its innovative approach allows the business to provide a one-stop-shop solution for all metal waste streams – from purchase and processing through to haulage and final delivery.

Commenting on the announcement Frans van Ommeren, Founder/Director, at Promet, said: “As our business continues to scale, being a vocal part of the sustainability debate and having our views represented at a national level is hugely important. With the vision of supporting the circular economy, our ambition aligns perfectly with Alupro’s future direction.

“We’re looking forward to joining its illustrious membership base and supporting its work to meet, and exceed, national recycling targets.”

Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, added: “We’re delighted to announce Promet as our latest member. As a significant operator in the UK market, the team’s insights into national and international trade will prove hugely valuable to our membership base.

“By making more scrap available for recycling, the company plays a key role in retaining valuable materials within the circular economy.”

For more information about Alupro’s, latest consumer engagement initiatives, visit www.alupro.org.uk.

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Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, will discuss the critical importance of careful policy planning, implementation and transition at this year’s DRS Conference. Taking place at the 22 Duchess Mews conference venue in central London, the event will bring together policymakers, local authorities, retailers, brands and technology providers to debate best practice approaches.

As part of the full-day event, Giddings will participate in the ‘material opportunities and challenges’ panel discussion alongside representatives from Esterform and British Glass. Chaired by Kate Ballard from Clarity Environmental, the session will explore how the UK’s introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will impact national capture volumes and overall material quality, as well as probing into key considerations around its effective implementation.

Alongside explaining why a well-designed DRS has the potential to supercharge aluminium packaging recycling rates domestically, Giddings will explore some of the key challenges associated with national implementation. Finally, he will put forward his view on the need for aligned reporting systems, accurate data capture and a careful transition away from the old PRN system.

Commenting on the event, Giddings said: “With DRS set to be rolled out across the UK from October 2027, bringing the industry together to debate the real-world opportunities and challenges associated with its implementation and long-term operation is a hugely important task.

“The DRS Conference offers the potential to do exactly that. The event will see businesses from across the supply chain share insight, put forward informed opinion and learn from best practice – such as lessons from the Republic of Ireland’s recent DRS policy implementation. I’m looking forward to championing the views of the aluminium packaging supply chain and explaining the importance of a careful transition.”

Alongside joining the ‘material opportunities and challenges’ panel discussion, Alupro will also be sponsoring the event. For more information, or to secure your ticket, visit https://web-eur.cvent.com/event/205fb031-6ef9-477b-8814-df6b85a32fa1.

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Alupro has welcomed Zorbatek, a leading aluminium recycling and processing business, as its latest member. Headquartered in Ellesmere Port, the family-run firm was founded to push quality, innovation and performance to a new level within aluminium recovery.

Built on more than 20 years of experience, Zorbatek ensures materials are handled with the highest standards of safety and care, providing a trusted and dependable processing solution. Having invested more than £5m into a state-of-the-art processing facility, the business combines advanced technology and in-house engineering expertise with a fast-moving, flexible approach.

ISO9001 accredited, Zorbatek is committed to continuous improvement, rigorous quality standards and tackling challenging material streams. The business continues to innovate, investing in research and development to meet the rapidly evolving needs of its customers, as well as to maximise recovery rates and material purity.

Roy Bellis, site manager at Zorbatek, commented: “Every year, more than 25,000 tonnes of zorba scrap is produced in the UK. We specialise in taking this material and turning it into a valuable product. After all, zorba contains a high percentage of reusable metal – including aluminium. If businesses like ours didn’t exist, these materials would be landfilled despite being 100% recyclable.

“With ambitious plans to scale into a 24/7 aluminium processing operation, we are scaling both our workforce and technical capability. Joining Alupro will provide a unique platform to engage with customers and suppliers, as well as allowing us to be part of the wider material supply chain conversation.”

Tom Giddings, Alupro’s Executive Director, added: “We’re delighted to welcome Zorbatek as our newest member. It not only demonstrates the company’s commitment to engaging with new audiences, but also its ambition to communicating the important role of investing in processes that help maximise recycling in tomorrow’s circular economy.

“Companies like Zorbatek are very important innovators who play a key role in recycling the more specialised aluminium packaging wate streams. We look forward to exploring the ways in which we can work together and make a real difference to the supply chain.”

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Residents across Leicestershire are being encouraged to foil in love with recycling through an awareness campaign aimed at boosting kerbside collections of aluminium foil. Despite being easily recyclable, items like wrapping foil, trays, aerosols, beverage cans and food tins are often misplaced in general waste.

Leicestershire County Council is the latest local authority to roll-out the initiative, which is run by Alupro and funded by the metal packaging industry, which has already reached more than 400,000 households across the UK.

The programme provides local authorities with everything needed to educate residents and drive positive behavioural change. In the case of Leicestershire County Council, this includes social media collateral, alongside a supporting four-week radio advertising campaign.

Councillor Adam Tilbury, the Cabinet Member for Waste at Leicestershire County Council, commented.  “We know it’s important that people know what they can and can’t recycle so items don’t unnecessarily end up in general waste bins.

“This campaign has seen great results elsewhere across the country, and we hope it sees an increase in recycled metal materials across Leicestershire.”

Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, added: “Our experience tells us that the most effective way of bringing about positive change isn’t by telling people what to do. Instead, we help households to understand the benefits of recycling – empowering them to take ownership of their waste.

“Our ‘Foil in Love with Recycling’ campaign encourages residents to think differently and explains how easy it is to recycle aluminium packaging – simply rinse off any chunky bits of food and place in the correct bin ready for collection at the kerbside.”

‘Foil in Love with Recycling’ will run across Leicestershire for four weeks. The initiative builds upon the success of implementing Alupro’s ‘MetalMatters’ campaign in 2025, which saw kerbside metal packaging collection volumes soar. Sampling data taken before and after the programme showed that metal yields increased by nearly 10%, despite a reported 2% decline in overall recycling volumes in the same period.

To learn more about Alupro, or its educational initiatives, visit www.alupro.org.uk.

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