As part of Recycle Week 2016 we’re focusing on helping people understand how much aluminium packaging they use (you’d surprised how much), and how easy it is to recycle it…

1: Cans #everycancounts

Where CAN you find them?

Most of our drinks cans are made from aluminium and we’re no stranger to seeing them pretty much everywhere. In fact, in the UK we’re using around 380 drink cans each every year!

What CAN you do?

We’re good at recycling aluminium cans, we managed to recycle 69% of them last year, which is pretty positive – BUT there’s room for improvement!

Top Tip: Don’t forget to recycle while you’re at work – if it’s not already easy to do, ask your employer to make it a priority and make sure everybody else is on board too. Visit everycancounts [link] to get advice and free marketing materials to make it even easier for everyone to do their bit.

CANny Facts:

The drink can you recycle today could be back on sale as another can in just 60 days – WOW!

There isn’t an expiration date for this strategy – aluminium recycles forever!

2: Aerosols #MetalMatters

Where can you find them?

Throughout your home and workplace; aerosols are ubiquitous with modern life and can be in the kitchen, the bathroom and on your bedroom dressing table.

What can you do?

Make sure your aerosol is completely empty before recycling and don’t be tempted to pierce or crush it before adding it to the recycle bin along with your other empty metal packaging, it’s that simple!

Canny Facts:

The average UK household uses 27 aerosols a year (That’s 10 aerosols per person per year

)!

Over half of the 580 million aerosols used in the UK every year are for personal care products so don’t forget to recycle what’s in your bathroom!

3: Foil Trays & Wrappers #MetalMatters

Where can you find them?

You’ll find these all around your house but mostly packaging for ready meals, take-away containers, pie cases, quiches, confectionery wrappers, yoghurt and coffee lid inserts, etc.

What can you do?

It’s easy to recycle foil trays. Just wipe or rinse them before recycling along with your other household items.

Top Tip: Scrunch foil wrappers together into a ball and put with other recycling – to check it is foil and not plastic wrap do the scrunch test.  If it stays scrunched it’s aluminium and ready for recycling. If it springs back open it’s plastic flim and not currently recyclable.

Canny facts:

Foil helps preserve freshness, it’s a barrier to light and moisture and so helps prevents food waste.

The average UK household uses 182 foil trays a year!

4. Bottle Caps #MetalMatters

Where can you find them?

Metal screw cap or lid can be a target for recycling. Screw caps and closures found on wine and spirits, cordials, olive oils and vinegars are typically made of recyclable aluminium.

What can you do?

The best way to recycle your screw caps is put the cap back on the empty glass bottle, then put it in the bottle bank or recycling bin at home (check your local recycling service). #YouCanLeaveYourCapOn

Canny Facts:

The aluminium screw caps can easily be separated from the glass at the recycling plant as part of the sorting process, and saved for reprocessing; so remembering to pop the top back on is an easy recycling win!

5. Household Foil #MetalMatters

Where can you find them?

A roll of foil can be found in most kitchen drawers across the UK, it’s a very versatile and popular product used to wrap, preserve and transport food.

What can you do?

Make sure it’s wiped or rinsed to remove residue (it doesn’t have to be scrubbed) then scrunch it or fold it and put in the recycling with all your other metal items (check your local recycling service)

Canny Facts:

The average household uses 12 m household foil every month!

Every year UK households buy enough foil to wrap over 29 million chickens! That’s an EGGstremely impressive amount of foil!

Top Tip: Check out our video on how to do a scrunch test to find out if you can recycle your material!

We’d love to hear about any recycling tips or hacks you might have discovered, why not share them with us on Facebook & Twitter and don’t forget to follow/like us to get more hints and tips throughout Recycling Week.