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

A group of representatives from MetalMatters and Orkney Council holding cardboard cut-outs of metal packaging items in front of one of their recycling vehicles which bears the MetalMatters signage artwork.

One in five UK councils have chosen to make their metals matter

Since the MetalMatters programme launched in 2012, one in five UK councils have chosen the campaign as a vehicle to deliver their recycling messages to householders and increase the metal packaging captured at kerbside: A total of 5.3 million households have now received MetalMatters messages directly through their door.

Nine councils have launched MetalMatters campaigns in 2017, and seven have been launched since the beginning of September. All are receiving funding support from the industry partnership and have been developed with programme managers, Alupro.

Bristol City, South Staffordshire, Calderdale (W. Yorkshire), Castle Point (Essex), Cheshire West and Chester, Orkney and West Dunbartonshire are all using MetalMatters to promote metal packaging recycling to their residents.   In total 592,000 households in the past month have been directly communicated with and encouraged to recycle their drink cans, food tins, foil and empty aerosols.

Councillor Fi Hance, Cabinet Member for Energy, Waste and Regulatory Services in Bristol said:

We’ve had lots of interest in the MetalMatters campaign since it was rolled out across the city by Bristol Waste Company in September. Metal is a valuable resource for Bristol and we are looking forward to seeing the results.”

Orkney Council is Britain’s smallest local authority, with a population of just 20,000 and a recycling infrastructure that relies heavily on bring banks as well as kerbside collections. The attraction of MetalMatters was the opportunity to communicate directly with residents through two leaflet drops to every household. The campaign is being used by the Council to inform residents that it has added aerosols and foil containers to its collection scheme for the first time; so it hopes that the  combination of information, education and reinforcement of the campaign messages will prove to be a positive method of boosting recycling rates.

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of MetalMatters programme managers, Alupro says:

“We are thrilled that one in five councils in the UK have partnered with the MetalMatters programme so far. We are particularly pleased to be working with Orkney: the programme has been deployed in both urban and rural areas and has proved successful in all settings, but this is the first time we have worked with such a small population.” He adds, “to date, every deployment has resulted in a positive impact on metal packaging capture rates which clearly demonstrates that focussing on behaviour change will deliver significant increases in recycling rates.”

The campaign is based around a two-phase leaflet drop that informs and reminds householders about what and how to recycle, and explains what happens to metal packaging when it is recycled.   The remaining campaign elements are completely flexible depending upon the needs of the local council who can choose from a ready-made library of resources ranging from bin stickers to cinema screen adverts.

The programme is funded by a partnership of metal packaging manufacturers, fillers and reprocessors, industry organisations and compliance schemes and is delivered on their behalf by Alupro, with support from local authorities and their waste collection partners.

DandT_Challenge_schools_competition_prize_drone

The Alu D&T Challenge is back!

The UK’s aluminium industry is on the search for the designers and engineers of the future as it launches this year’s Alu D&T Challenge.  Secondary schools throughout the UK are invited to take part in the Challenge which aims to teach 11-14 year olds about sustainable design.  The Challenge includes an opportunity for students to enter their ideas in a national competition for a chance to win prizes for themselves and their school.   Read more

Ecosurety pledges support for MetalMatters

Ecosurety, one of the UK’s leading packaging compliance schemes and resource efficiency specialists, has pledged their support to MetalMatters, the metal packaging industry’s flag ship behavioural change programme.

As part of their support package, Ecosurety successfully introduced the programme to Bristol City Council and The Bristol Waste Company who launched MetalMatters to 197,000 households today (Wednesday 6th September).

With more than 1,000 members including The Co-operative Group, Innocent and Britvic, Ecosurety is leading change in approaches to environmental compliance throughout the UK, driving ever greater efficiencies of resource use.

James Piper, Ecosurety’s Managing Director, said: “We are pleased to support the MetalMatters programme as we have seen collaborations between local authorities and waste management companies drive large increases in metal capture rates.   The partnership approach, pioneered by MetalMatters, has great synergies with our ethos at Ecosurety, we are delighted to have initiated and supported the deployment of the programme in our home city of Bristol and look forward to seeing the impact of the campaign. We are excited to be working with Alupro to increase future funding for MetalMatters through our innovative Circularety platform, which will mean members are able to see their money transparently invested to realise a tangible increase in metal recycling.”

To date MetalMatters campaigns have been delivered in 81 local authorities across the UK, and have directly targeted over 5.3 million households. The campaign is based around a two-phase leaflet drop which informs and reminds householders about what and how to recycle, and explain what happens to metal packaging when it is recycled.

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of project managers, Alupro: “We are delighted to welcome Ecosurety to our committed group of funding partners for the MetalMatters programme. Their support illustrates the growing realisation from obligated companies that behaviour change programmes have a key role to play in boosting recycling performance. The additional contribution will allow us to expand the programme into even more local authority areas.   We are currently identifying new opportunities to deploy MetalMatters with local authorities and waste management companies for our 2018 programme and will be beginning our recruitment drive at the RWM exhibition and the LARAC conference over the coming months.”

The programme is funded by a partnership of metal packaging manufacturers, fillers and reprocessors, industry organisations and compliance schemes and is delivered on their behalf by Alupro, with support from local authorities and their waste collection partners.

Tata Steel manufacturing site building

Tata Steel steps up support for MetalMatters

Alupro has announced that Tata Steel UK is increasing its support for MetalMatters; the metal packaging industry’s UK behavioral change programme which aims to boost capture rates for metal packaging collected at kerbside.

The European operations of Tata Steel, whose main steelmaking sites are in the UK and the Netherlands, comprise Europe’s second largest steel producer. They are the largest supplier and recycler of steel used in packaging sold onto the UK market – from food cans to aerosols.

Tata Steel serves many different and demanding markets worldwide, including aerospace, automotive, construction, energy and power and packaging. The European operations are a subsidiary of Tata Steel Group, one of the world’s top twelve steel producers. The combined group has an aggregate crude steel capacity of more than 29 million tonnes and approximately 80,000 employees across four continents.

Packaging Recycling Education Manager, Nicola Jones at Tata Steel,: “MetalMatters is a great example of industry and local authorities working together to engage local communities, increase recycling rates for metal packaging and reducing its product carbon footprint. We recognise that local authorities are under huge financial pressures which is impacting on their ability to deliver communications programmes essential for boosting recycling rates. The proven MetalMatters programme delivers impressive improvements in metal packaging recycling rates every time it is deployed.   We are proud to be part of MetalMatters and are keen to actively support the ongoing development of the programme. We will also be encouraging our packaging customers to get involved.”

To date MetalMatters campaigns have been delivered in 81 local authorities across the UK, and have directly targeted over 5.3 million households. The campaign is based around a two-phase leaflet drop which informs and reminds householders about what and how to recycle, and explain what happens to metal packaging when it is recycled.

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of project managers, Alupro: “We are delighted that Tata Steel has committed to increase their support for MetalMatters. The additional contribution will allow us to expand the programme into even more local authority areas – we are currently identifying new opportunities to deploy the programme with local authorities and waste management companies for our 2018 schedule.

The programme is funded by a partnership of metal packaging manufacturers, fillers and reprocessors and is delivered on their behalf by Alupro, with support from local authorities and their waste collection partners.

ENDS

 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. For details of the industry partnership that funds the programme and case studies please visit the website www.metalmatters.org.uk

About Tata Steel UK

Tata Steel Europe (formerly Corus) is Europe’s second-largest steel producer. It supplies steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging, engineering and other sectors worldwide.

Corus was acquired by Tata Steel in April 2007 and made the Tata Steel group the world’s sixth largest steel producer

For more information, visit www.tatasteeleurope.com, or connect with us on Twitter.

 

Issued by:

Alupro Ltd, 1 Brockhill Court, Brockhill Lane, Redditch B97 6RB

Taurus Celebrates The Forest’s Foil Recycling Success

Taurus Crafts, based in Lydney, are celebrating because with the help of local residents they have saved over two tonnes of aluminium foil from landfill in the past year. 

The foil, collected through the bright yellow recycling banks sited around the Forest of Dean is processed by volunteers at Taurus Crafts.   The project is supported by Forest of Dean District Council and Ubico who deliver the collected foil into the Lydney project.


Ingo Kresse from Taurus Crafts commented, “We would like to thank residents for using the yellow foil recycling banks sited around the Forest of Dean.  We are delighted that during the last twelve months alone we recycled 2.2 tonnes of foil. Our recycling volunteers are very enthusiastic and proud of their achievement, and they do a great job. All clean aluminium foil, from takeaway containers, to pie cases and food wrapping foil can be recycled. We want to remind residents that some things, such as tablet packaging and pet food pouches look shiny, but are actually made of laminated plastic. A simple way to tell if something is foil is to scrunch it, if it springs back into shape it is plastic and cannot be recycled.”

Councillor Chris McFarling, Cabinet Member for the Environment at the Forest of Dean District Council said: “We are delighted to support Taurus Crafts with this initiative. It means that not only can residents recycle foil, which diverts waste from landfill, but they can do so knowing that they are supporting a very worthwhile local project because the money raised from the sale of the foil goes straight back to supporting Taurus Crafts. 


“The average household throws away a ball of foil weighing one and a half kilos every year.  If all of this was recycled it would be worth thousands of pounds that could be used by the organisations collecting it.”


There are big environmental benefits to recycling foil, as it can be endlessly recycled with no loss of quality, saving over 95% of the energy used to make it from raw materials. By recycling just one large foil takeaway or foil ready meal container, enough energy is saved to run a television for three hours.


The group is also supported by Alupro, who provide recycling sacks, protective clothing for recyclers who take part in the Taurus Crafts project, and provide a foil baler on free loan.


Foil banks are located at:

Grahamstown Road (Tidenham Royal British Legion), Sedbury
Co-op, Cinderford
Railway Drive Car Park, Coleford
Newerne Street Car Park, Lydney
Lewell Street Car Park, Newent
High Street, Ruardean
Ruspidge Road, Ruspidge


The foil collected from Oak Quarry Household Recycling Centre is also delivered to Taurus Crafts for recycling.


There are a further two wheelie bins on site at Taurus Crafts, Old Park, Lydney Park Estate, Lydney, for public use.

Every Can Counts encourages Women’s Cycling Tour fans to join the Recycle Race

The Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) are inviting cycling fans to join in the ‘Recycle Race’ activity and make Every Can Count whilst cheering on elite cyclists from the world’s top teams competing in the OVO Energy Women’s Tour from 7-11 June www.womenstour.co.uk

National recycling programme, Every Can Counts is an “official partner” of the race and a lead sponsor of participating cycling team, Drops Cycling. The aim of the partnership is to deliver the recycling message to a new audience and to encourage people to recycle drinks cans when they are ‘on the go’ outside the home.

On race days, spectators are invited along to the Every Can Counts stand, in the ‘Promo Zone’ to combine their cycling and recycling skills in ‘The Recycle Race.’ This interactive game uses pedal power to move used cans around a recycling loop track. Participants can race against family and friends, with the opportunity to win prizes including a bike made from 850 recycled cans.

The game promotes the message that the drinks can you recycle today could be recycled into a new can in 60 days – or even a new racing bike – and that aluminium is endlessly recyclable.

The Every Can Counts stand will be in the promo zone at all five stages of the Women’s Tour from 7th-11 June as follows:

Stage 1: Wednesday 7th June, Daventry to Kettering, Stand at High Street, Kettering
Stage 2: Thursday 8th June, Stoke-On-Trent, Stand at Tontine Street, Stoke-on-Trent
Stage 3: Friday 9th June, Atherstone to Royal Leamington Spa, Stand at Parade, Leamington Spa
Stage 4: Saturday 10th June, Chesterfield, Stand at Market Place, Chesterfield
Stage 5: Sunday 11 June, London, Stand at Trafalgar Square, London

Every Can Counts, a programme run by Alupro, is supported by drink can manufacturers, drinks companies and the recycling industry. The programme aims to enable and encourage drinks can recycling in all environments. This includes workplaces, universities and colleges, events such as music festivals – or when watching a cycling race!

Every Can Counts has been running since 2009 and has 2,500 sites using the programme with over 13,500 collections points across the UK.
Executive Director of Alupro, Rick Hindley said: “We are really excited by our new partnerships with Drops Cycling and the Women’s Tour. Cycling is the fastest growing mass participation sport in the UK and this provides us with the opportunity to communicate our messages to a new and rapidly growing audience.  We have already taken ur cycling game to four major cycling events this year and encouraging thousands of race goers to “make their cans count” in a fun and engaging way!”

The Women’s Tour is a part of the UCI Women’s World Tour, comprising 20 events around the world in 10 different countries.

The Drops Cycling Team has had some fantastic results recently, including winning both the individual and team races at the recent Tour Series cycling events in May.

For further information about the ‘Recycle Race’ visit www.everycancounts.co.uk

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Watch our video about our partnership and the Recycle Race activity here.

For further information please contact Every Can Counts on 01527 597757 or email everycancounts@alupro.co.uk
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. It is supported by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). It aims to enable and encourage more people to recycle the drinks cans they use outside the home. For more information visit http://www.everycancounts.co.uk/what-we-do/

You can also follow Every Can Counts on Facebook and Twitter

 

Alupro announces a new milestone reached for aluminium drink can recycling in the UK as recycling rate reaches 70%

Seven out of ten aluminium drink cans sold in the UK in 2016 were recycled, according to the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation.

Beverage cans make up by far the largest sector of the 180,000 tonnes of aluminium packaging placed on the market during the year; and with the UK being the largest beverage can market in Europe, and aluminium the dominant metal used for can manufacturing, the 70% milestone for aluminium cans makes a major contribution to the European metal packaging sector’s ambition to reach and exceed an average 80% metal packaging recycling rate by 20201.

Commenting on the recycling rate milestone Alupro Executive Director Rick Hindley said: “We are obviously very pleased that aluminium packaging recycling rates continue to increase year on year and it’s particularly nice to reach a new 70% ‘milestone’ for beverage cans. The continued growth is due to the support of our members and partners in the wider industry and their commitment to invest in and support our programmes to drive positive, lasting behaviour change among consumers.”’

Alupro has expressed concern that future recycling performance will be compromised by a lack of ambition from government in setting new targets for aluminium, and lobbied for targets to 2020 to be ‘front loaded’. The organisation has also argued for reform to the PRN system, including the mandatory registration of reprocessors and exporters to ensure that all material collected for recycling is reported through the issuing of Packaging Recovery Notes.  This was the result of research it carried out to reveal the ‘real recycling rate’ for aluminium packaging. The organisation expressed frustration when its argument for an increase in the 2017 target was ignored.

“We remain convinced that future growth in aluminium recycling performance is achievable within the current system, subject to a few revisions which will ensure all recycling is accurately reported and that behaviour change programmes are properly funded on a fair and equitable basis. Alupro believes that communication is the missing link between the collection infrastructure and recycling growth, as has been proved over and again by industry-funded programmes like MetalMatters and Every Can Counts. Our focus remains to make people aware of the aluminium in the packaging they use every day and how to recycle it so that the metal can be given a new life, over and over again.”

Notes to editors:

The recycling rate for aluminium can beverage cans is calculated by Alupro using data supplied by the national packaging waste database, and by its member companies, and using methodology consistent with that used across Europe to calculate recycling rates.

  1. http://www.metalpackagingeurope.org/sustainability

South Northamptonshire residents urged to make their used metal matter

Households across South Northamptonshire are being urged to recycle more of the 45 million items of metal packaging used in the region each year.

South Northamptonshire Council (SNC) has teamed up with Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro), an organisation representing the metal packaging manufacturing industry, recyclers and fillers, to launch the ‘MetalMatters’ recycling campaign across the district next month.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of the importance of metal packaging recycling, to increase the amount collected from households and reduce the costs for dealing with household waste.

Cllr Dermot Bambridge, SNC’s portfolio holder for environmental services said: “Over a year, the average household uses approximately 600 food tins, 380 drink cans, 27 aerosols and 182 foil trays.

“Every metal can that is recycled saves enough energy to power a television for four hours.

“By recycling all the metal packaging used in South Northamptonshire each year would save around 1,220 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent to taking over 260 cars off local streets for a year and helping the environment.”

Rick Hindley, executive director of Alupro the project managers, said: “The MetalMatters programme has delivered significant increases in the volumes of metal packaging collected for recycling in other parts of the UK, so we’re aiming to repeat – and hopefully better this – in South Northants.”

The campaign includes leaflets which will be sent to each of the 38,000 households in the area detailing the importance of including used metal packaging in their blue recycling bin and a series roadshows across the district.

Residents are reminded that aerosol cans, drink and food cans, aluminium trays and wrapping foil, can all be recycled via their blue wheelie bin.

An interactive A to Z of what goes where can be found here – http://www.southnorthants.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling.htm.

The MetalMatters campaign is jointly funded by an industry partnership comprising the UK’s leading producers, users and recyclers of metal packaging and South Northamptonshire Council.

For more information visit – http://metalmatters.org.uk/, or for more information on waste and recycling in South Northants visit – http://www.southnorthants.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling.htm.

MetalMatters roadshows will be visiting South Northamptonshire throughout May and June:
• Tuesday, 23 May, Tesco Superstore, Oxford Road, Brackley – 10am to 4pm
• Thursday, 25 May, Waitrose, Richmond Road, Towcester – 10am to 4pm

END