Torbay Council has teamed up with the metal packaging manufacturing and recycling industries to urge residents to ‘make their metals matter’ and recycle more of the metal packaging items they use at home every year.

The recycling campaign aims to raise awareness of the importance of metal packaging recycling and increase the amount collected from households. It is estimated that 24 million drinks cans, food cans, aerosols, aluminium foil trays and wrapping foil is used in UK homes every year.

Used metal packaging can be recycled endlessly into new products at a far lower cost than making them from raw materials. However, research shows that residents are not always aware that their used metal packaging, collected from their homes, will be transformed into new valuable everyday items.

A Torbay wide communications campaign is launching to help people understand what can be recycled and explain what happens to the metals collected. The campaign will reach more than 63,000 households and includes bus and collection vehicle advertising, and leaflets which will be sent to every home.

Cllr Mark King, Executive Lead for Housing, Planning, Transport and Waste for Torbay Council, said: “Our MetalMatters campaign is a tried and tested campaign which has proved to increase recycled metal cans, clean foil, aerosols and metal bottle tops through kerbside collections in the UK. The eye catching leaflets, which every resident, will receive are designed to increase recycling throughout the bay.

“We are calling on local residents to ‘make their metals matter’ and help increase the area's recycling performance. We are committed to reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill and we hope the campaign will encourage our residents to recycle more of the metal packaging they use every day.

“Every can recycled saves enough energy to run a TV for four hours, so a small action like putting your empty bean tin in the recycling bag, box or bin can make a big difference.”

Rick Hindley, Executive Director of project managers Alupro, said: “It is great to be able to work in partnership with Torbay Council to promote the recycling of metal packaging.

"The MetalMatters programme has delivered significant increases in the volumes of metal packaging collected for recycling in other parts of the UK, so we are aiming to repeat, and hopefully better this, in Torbay.”

The campaign is being jointly funded by MetalMatters, an industry partnership comprising the UK’s leading producers, users and recyclers of metal packaging. MetalMatters is run by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) on behalf of the funding partners.

ENDS

For further information contact Torbay Council’s Recycling Officer, Carol Arthur, on 01803 207734

Notes to Editors

About MetalMatters
MetalMatters was developed and is funded by the metal packaging manufacturing industry, reprocessors and fillers. The programme works in partnership with local authorities and their waste collection partners to promote metal packaging recycling, and thereby improve capture rates for metal packaging at the kerbside. The MetalMatters programme is supported by WRAP. MetalMatters is being managed on behalf of the funding partners by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro).

For details of MetalMatters campaigns and case studies visit www.metalmatters.org.uk

Number of million packaging items based on: 600 food tins, 380 drinks cans and 27 empty aerosols thrown out by an average household annually (1007 items), multiplied by approx. number of households 58,000 in Wrexham.

Research carried out by the BCME (Beverage Can Makers Europe) during the inception stage of the MetalMatters programme in 2010. Please use this web address to download the case study into the Pilot Programme which details this research www.metalmatters.org.uk/case-studies/pilot-programme .

CO2 equivalence based on: The average household consumption of steel and aluminium packaging across 58,000 households in Greater Manchester, the CO2 saving if this entire quantity was recycled and the average emission of CO2 from a standard car per annum. Actual calculations are available.