South Northamptonshire residents urged to make their used metal matter

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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

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Every Can Counts at the Tour Series and OVO Energy Women’s Tour

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Fans attending the OVO Energy Women’s Tour this June will have the chance to make Every Can Count as the five-day UCI Women’s World Tour race partners with Alupro, the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation. Read more

The Recycle Race with Every Can Counts and Drops Cycling

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Alupro programme Every Can Counts and Drops Cycling Team are teaming up at major UK cycling races during the 2017 season to engage with the public about the importance of recycling drink cans. Read more

Ball pledges funding support for MetalMatters

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Alupro are pleased to announce that Ball Corporation is becoming a direct funding partner of MetalMatters; the packaging industry’s communications programme in the UK which aims to boost the capture rates for metal packaging collected at kerbside. Read more

Winners announced for the 2016 Alu D&T Challenge

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 Seventeen students from schools around the UK have been named as winners in the Alu D&T Challenge, a national competition for 11 to 14 year olds organised by the aluminium industry to inspire young designers to create sustainable products using aluminium.

Students and their teachers travelled to Birmingham to receive their prizes and meet the sponsors at a celebratory event at Thinktank Science Museum.

The national schools competition, linked to the Design and Technology curriculum, helps teach pupils about the material properties and sustainability potential of aluminium by challenging them to design a sustainable product for the future using aluminium. The design challenges are based on real-life briefs faced by designers, engineers and manufacturers in three categories – transport, building and packaging.  They form part of a wider package of cross-curricular teaching resources which have been developed by the aluminium industry to support teachers of pupils aged 7 to 14.

Judging took place in two stages, reducing over 200 entries to a final shortlist of 30; with the final winners chosen by a panel made up of senior figures from the aluminium industry, and specialists in engineering and architecture.

The winning individual and team in each of the three design challenges won a 3D printer for their school, plus £100 in vouchers for the pupils. Prizes were also awarded to runners up and finalists in each category.

The panel of judges agreed the 2016/17 winners were:

Vehicle of the future category:

  • Winner – individual: Alex Brown (Year 8) Oakham School, Leics.
  • Winner – team: Urmston Grammar School
  • Runner Up: Thomas Lemon, St. John’s School, Northwood.

Garden building for a creative homeworker category:

  • Winner – individual: Amy Riddlesdell, Oakham School
  • Winner –team: Urmston Grammar School
  • Runner up: Tobias Raphael, Crosfields School

Innovative new packaging solution category:

  • Winner – individual: Ethan Thorne, St. Ives School
  • Winner – team: Ysgol Glan-y-Mor
  • Runner up: Nick Wood, St Ives School

Speaking about the winning submissions at the prize-giving ceremony in Birmingham, Alu D&T Challenge judge and sponsor Andy Doran, of Novelis UK,  said:

“Meeting the winners of the competition is one of the highlights of my year! The enthusiasm and talent these young people show for designing products that will benefit society and protect our environment is so uplifting. Between them the winners demonstrated some really progressive ideas about designing sustainable products using aluminium, and I hope we have inspired some future engineers, designers and materials scientists who will make a difference to industry in the future.”

Alupro’s Marketing & Communications Manager, Diana Caldwell, said:

“Since we launched the competition at the start of the academic year over 300 teachers have registered online and downloaded our resources for use with over 25,000 students. The competition gives us an insight into what pupils have learnt about aluminium and the contribution it can make to sustainable lifestyle, but knowing that this message is also reaching a much wider audience in schools across the country is invaluable for our industry.”

Commenting on the value of the competition and its impact on students, Mrs Vanessa McSween from St. John’s School in Northwood, said: “All of our students enjoyed taking part and it was wonderful to have a winner!  I am delighted by the spotlight the aluminium industry shines on the subject of Design & Technology by making this link between school and industry. It highlights the importance of the subject with regard to futures in engineering as well as many other related fields. Being given this opportunity can be a definite ‘game changer’ in the future thinking of these pupils which is fantastic!”

Watch our film featuring the winners of the 2016 Alu D&T Challenge here

M&S supports new MetalMatters campaign in Leeds

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The largest single local authority MetalMatters campaign has launched across Leeds City Council this month.   The Industry-funded communications campaign which is running in partnership with Marks & Spencer, will directly communicate with over 348,500 households with the aim of increasing capture rates of metal packaging recycled through kerbside collections.

Over the course of the 12 week campaign, Leeds City Council will directly mail each of their households.   This will be supported by radio adverts, signage on recycling vehicles, a comprehensive roadshow schedule and a new recycling competition for residents.

An exciting addition to the programme in Leeds is the partnership with M&S, one of the UK’s leading retailers. As part of Plan A, its eco and ethical programme, M&S is committed to working in partnership with programmes like the MetalMatters campaign in Leeds, to improve national levels of recycling and help customers to live more sustainably. In addition to its support with the communications campaign, M&S is also planning interactive recycling games and competitions to help explain recycling to local residents at its Moortown store on Harrogate Road, where members of the council will also be on hand to talk to customers about their recycling.

Laura Fernandez, senior packaging technologist at M&S said “We are working hard to make it as easy as possible for our customers to live more sustainably. The MetalMatters campaign has a had a really positive impact on raising awareness of the importance of recycling all metal packaging and has also helped boost overall recycling levels in other areas of the country – so we’re really looking forward to supporting the campaign in Leeds.”

Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, deputy leader and executive member for environment and sustainability said “We are calling on local residents to make their metals matter and help increase Leeds’ recycling performance.   Recycling metal is good for the environment by reducing CO2 emissions and helps reduce the costs of dealing with the city’s waste.   Households in Leeds are recycling just under half of their everyday metal packaging like drinks cans, tins, aerosols and foil.

Every can recycled saves enough energy to run a TV for four hours, so a small action like putting your empty bean tin into your green recycling bin can make a big difference.”

MetalMatters is now in its fifth year and has communicated with over 4.5 million households across 74 Local Authority areas to date. The programme has seen some impressive results with an average of 18% increase in metal packaging capture rates, with some councils achieving an increase in capture 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.

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of project managers Alupro, said: “The launch of the Leeds campaign is a fantastic start to 2017 for MetalMatters, not least because it marks the first time a national retailer has directly supported the campaign and we are delighted to be working with M&S.   The campaign provides a cost effective and easy-to-implement solution for authorities, helping to deliver an improvement in metal packaging capture rates and a sustained positive impact for recycling long after the campaign has been delivered.”

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.

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Alupro’s response to recycling targets consultation

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Consultation on changes to packaging recycling business targets for paper, steel, aluminium, wood and overall recovery and recycling for 2018-20

Alupro fully supports the Government’s ambition “to have appropriate targets which ensure that the UK complies with the EU Packaging Directive targets whilst maximising the benefits for consumers, businesses and the environment” but in its response to the consultation suggests that the  aluminium targets are restructured.  Alupro proposes an increase to the 2017 aluminium target and that in subsequent years the targets are ‘front-loaded’. It believes this structure would maintain the momentum in the aluminium sector and help realise  Alupro’s ambition to ensure that the “real” recycling rate for aluminium packaging is measured meaning that all aluminium packaging collected for recycling is captured by the PRN system.

Download the full response document here

Read more

Alupro announced as sponsor of Drops Cycling Team

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The Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) is sponsoring the Drops Cycling Team during 2017 as part of its work to encourage everyone to recycle more of the aluminium packaging they use at work, at home and on the go. The sponsorship will focus on the Every Can Counts programme, which helps people to recycle drinks cans used outside the home.

Watch our video here

Read more

Alupro is recruiting!

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Alupro is looking for a new team member to develop and manage our campaigns to increase aluminium packaging recycling in the UK, including the Every Can Counts and MetalMatters programmes. Read more

New ‘Leave Your Cap On’ campaigns extend coverage to over 2 million households

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­­­­­­­­­­­­Alupro’s ‘Leave Your Cap On’ campaign, which encourages residents to recycle aluminium screw tops along with the glass bottles on which they came, has recently launched in four local authorities.  The latest campaigns, in Oxford and Berkshire, mean the number of bottle banks across the UK now promoting the recycling message has reached 5,443, taking the number of households reached by the message past 2 million. Read more