Last week, pupils from Stilton Primary School in Peterborough learned all about the benefits of recycling metal packaging at a special workshop. Hosted by Eleanor Shorland from Tata Steel, the session explored the recycling process and gave practical advice about how best to separate packaging at the kerbside.

In total, more than 90 schoolchildren attended the workshop, which follows shortly behind the launch of a new recycling awareness campaign by RECAP, the waste partnership between Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

‘MetalMatters’ used social media messaging and local radio advertising, alongside outdoor advertising, to communicate the widespread benefits of metal packaging recycling with local residents. Aiming to increase both collection volumes and recycling quality, the campaign reached an estimated 327,000 households.

Eleanor Shorland, Packaging Recycling Education Officer at Tata Steel, commented: “Engaging with the recyclers of tomorrow and educating them about best practice is so important. If we can make sustainability fun and relatable early on, it’s far more likely that they’ll prioritise the environment – and recycle their used metal packaging – in the future.

“As part of my role, I’ve held hundreds of workshops all over the UK to help educate children about recycling – why it’s so important, how best to do it and the wide range of products that we can create using empty packaging that would otherwise be thrown in the bin. The more pupils we can engage with, the more recycling advocates we can inspire!”

Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, the organisation behind MetalMatters, added: “Since we launched the first MetalMatters campaign back in 2012, Tata Steel has been a committed partner. Hand in hand with each of our awareness campaigns, Eleanor gets out to as many local schools as she possibly can to help spread the recycling message further.

“It’s wonderful to see such fantastic feedback from the workshops and so many enthusiastic pupils. Hopefully the campaigns will work in parallel to really help drive up metal packaging recycling rates across the two counties.”

As part of her educational tour of the RECAP region, Eleanor also visited the Education Centre at Waterbeach Waste Management Park. To find out more about Eleanor’s work, visit https://www.tatasteeleurope.com/packaging/sustainability.