Every Can Counts encourages workplaces to get growing and get recycling for Green Office Week

Since the programme launched in 2008 Every Can Counts, a partnership between BCME and the recycling industry, has helped a variety of businesses with their recycling, including universities like Durham University and firms such as Jaguar Land Rover. But, offices were the focus for Every Can Counts recently when the programme launched a fun campaign to motivate office workers to get recycling this Green Office Week.

Green Office Week runs in May and aims to encourage people to take their environmental responsibilities more seriously in the workplace. While most of us are in the habit of recycling at home, it’s often not as easy to recycle at work. Every Can Counts teamed up with Green Office Week to raise awareness that recycling in the workplace doesn’t have to be a challenge or a chore.

The ‘Can Your Garden Grow?’ campaign launched by Every Can Counts brought drinks can recycling to the front of office workers’ minds. By challenging offices across the UK to brighten up their workplaces and grow their very own garden in their used drinks cans, this provided a fun way for offices to get involved with the week and make their place of work more sustainable.

Offices taking part in the competition are still growing their gardens for the chance to win a month’s supply of drinks cans. These workplaces are now being supported with their recycling by Every Can Counts and will be receiving a free recycling bin so their team’s drinks can recycling can be easily collected in the future.

Green Office Week provided a great opportunity to promote recycling, but the wider aim for Every Can Counts is to show workplaces just how easily the recycling scheme can be implemented on a long-term basis. Once businesses start to recycle, it can soon become part of the daily office routine and can also have a positive impact on a company’s bottom line.

Later in the year we will show you what Every Can Counts is doing to make recycling drinks cans easier while out and about at various locations across the UK.

How V Festival is making Every Can Count

Music festivals see lots of cans consumed, brought in by campers and sold onsite, making them the perfect fit for Every Can Counts, the programme that’s getting people recycling at work and on the go. As Festival organisers are keen to reduce their environmental footprint and raise the profile of the event’s green credentials, Every Can Counts provides a platform for this.

This video shows Every Can Counts at work at V Festival in Telford. The programme joined forces with contractors Ryans Event Cleaning and Panda Waste to collect, sort and process the cans onsite. Ryans and Panda set up can recycling points across the site. Every Can Counts were responsible for communicating the recycling message, providing highly visible and interactive promotions during the event to encourage festival-goers to do the right thing with their empty cans. Cans recovered in the waste stream were sorted onsite, with equipment provided by Novelis Recycling.

Around 130,000 cans, which equates to over two tonnes of aluminium and steel, were collected at V. A great achievement considering every can is infinitely recyclable without loss of quality and each can recycled substantially reduces the environmental footprint of the next one made.

Click here to watch the video: www.youtube.com/everycancounts

A look back at the Soft Drinks International Conference

The Soft Drinks International Conference, held at the Tower Hotel, London, saw delegates from all over the world come together to discuss the soft drinks industry. Topics ranged from packaging and innovation, to consumer behaviour and sustainability. Representatives included Geoff Courtney, Chairman of the UK Can Makers, and Every Can Counts and MetalMatters Director, Rick Hindley as well as UK and international representatives from Coca Cola Enterprises, Euromonitor, Canadean and UNESDA (Union of European Soft Drinks Associations) to name but a few.

Representing the UK Can Makers, Geoff Courtney’s presentation was a dynamic look at the beverage can covering three main themes: Evolution, Innovation and Sustainability. Used for soft drinks since the 1950s, the can has undergone continual evolution, keeping up with changing needs and holding its own as a consumer pack of choice for soft drinks. Of particular note are continual lightweighting, the expansive range of appearances, shapes, sizes and formats available and the fresh tasting, cold beverage that the humble can provides. Geoff also discussed sustainability initiatives supported by the Can Makers such as Every Can Counts and MetalMatters programmes.

Overall, the conference was very informative, well attended and a great success and we would like to thank the organisers from Soft Drinks International magazine for a most enjoyable and enlightening conference.

51 million drinks cans recycled in 2011 with Every Can Counts

Every Can Counts, the out of the home drinks can recycling programme co-funded by BCME, has announced its 2011 results. 51 million cans were collected from participating workplaces and ‘on the go’ locations in the UK over the past year. This equates to 774 tonnes of aluminium and steel saved from landfill and around 5,800 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions avoided as a result of the programme. The figure is equivalent to each employee from registered organisations recycling  five cans per month, an increase of 25% year on year.

The programme has come a long way in the three years since its launch. Originally developed as a trial programme to test the barriers and drivers to successful recycling outside the home, Every Can Counts has now established a model to help organisations that are working towards sustainability objectives, such as zero waste to landfill. The programme was cited as an example of best practice in the Government Review of Waste Policy in England 2011.

With a name and brand identity that works well in any language, the Every Can Counts programme has also now been successfully replicated in France, Austria, Romania and Hungary, with more European markets looking to follow suit.

To find out how to get involved with the programme visit www.everycancounts.co.uk. You can also follow Every Can Counts on Facebook and Twitter.

¹ Figures have been calculated using data provided by a representative sample of Every Can Counts programme users and calculated using methodology approved by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

Can Film Festival Gets Students Recycling Can Film Festival Gets Students Recycling

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2012 is off to a strong start for Every Can Counts. The out-of-home recycling programme kicked off its student outreach to UK universities during Go Green Week (6^th-11^th February) with the Can Film Festival. Aimed at boosting campus recycling, the initiative offers students, lecturers and staff free film screenings in exchange for their empty drinks cans.

 Now in its third successful year, the Can Film Festival, open throughout the academic year, aims to raise awareness of the recyclability of drinks cans and encourage more students and young people to do the right thing with their empties.  Participating campuses have access to Every Can Counts recycling containers, posters and promotional materials to help encourage both staff and students to swap their empty cans for entry.

While Every Can Counts reaches out to business and consumers alike, the Can Film Festival encourages long term behavioural change by making recycling rewarding, easy and fun at universities. Forty universities requested packs ahead of this year’s start during Go Green Week to run their own Can Film Festivals, including King’s College, London, University of Birmingham and Newcastle University, with more to come in the academic year.

For more information visit www.everycancounts.co.uk/about. You can also follow Every Can Counts on Facebook and Twitter.

Every Can Counts launches in Barnstaple town centre

Drinks can recycling programme Every Can Counts has been launched to shoppers and retailers across Barnstaple town centre.  Working with BID Barnstaple in partnership with Barnstaple Town Council, Every Can Counts is working to improve drinks can recycling in the centre’s 400 retail units.  Barnstaple is the first retail centre in the South West to launch the programme.

Every Can Counts has been introduced as part of a focused green strategy, to demonstrate an environmental commitment, which includes diverting as much waste from landfill as possible.  The programme also fits with the BID civic pride initiative, which aims to encourage both traders and shoppers alike to take pride in their town centre.

Every Can Counts has previously partnered with North Devon Council, Ilfracombe Town Council and Woolacombe Parish council to encourage residents to recycle their drinks cans at Ilfracombe and Woolacombe beaches. Cans are being collected and processed by local community recycling enterprise, Community Resources,  a not-for-profit organisation based in Ilfracombe with a satellite unit in Barnstaple, which  provide meaningful, practical and worthwhile activities for adults with learning disabilities.

Expanding on this partnership, each of the 400 stores and restaurants within Barnstaple town centre have been provided with Every Can Counts recycling boxes and promotional materials to encourage both staff and shoppers to recycle their empty drink cans.

For more information or to start recycling with Every Can Counts visit www.everycancounts.co.uk or read more about it here 

Every Can Counts launches new website to help businesses implement recycling

With many organisations working towards sustainability objectives, including zero waste to landfill targets, research demonstrates that businesses would benefit from greater support to help achieve their environmental goals. In response, drinks can recycling programme Every Can Counts has launched a new online information hub designed to help organisations and individuals increase recycling in their workplace. Recognising that an effective recycling programme combines service with promotion, the new online hub, www.everycancounts.co.uk, provides information and advice on setting up or reinvigorating a recycling scheme, along with communications resources to help with promotion to staff and customers.

 For more information visit www.everycancounts.co.uk/getinvolved/business

 

 

 

 

CIWM recognises two BCME funded recycling programmes

November was a busy month for sustainability programme activity. We are absolutely delighted to announce that two programmes supported by BCME: MetalMatters, the programme aimed at improving metal recycling rates from the home, and Every Can Counts, aimed at increasing recycling rates out of the home, were named as finalists in the CIWM Awards for Environmental Excellence.  At the awards ceremony itself MetalMatters was named the winner of the Communications Campaign category and Every Can Counts was a runner up in the Innovative Practice in Resource Recovery and Waste Management category. Recognition from such a prestigious organisation is a fantastic achievement for both programmes and will help push the programmes even further in 2012.

What stops us from recycling and how can we make it better?

 The industry knows that recycling is important and, with facilities available to recover and process all the beverage cans used in the UK, what’s stopping everyone from actually doing it?

There has been plenty of research on the subject, not just commissioned by the industry. Whilst some may think the reason why people don’t recycle enough is because they don’t feel it’s important, in fact the opposite is true. People do feel that recycling is important but there are a plethora of reasons why they don’t do it.

From the home, the majority of councils collect recycling which is in designated boxes or bags. One of the major barriers to recycling from the home is that people aren’t convinced that what they put out for recycling is actually recycled. Another is that people don’t really understand what can be recycled and some don’t feel that they make a difference.

Outside of the home there are, again, many reasons why people don’t recycle. On the go recycling facilities can be difficult to come across and symbols are often complicated and difficult to understand. This is improving as more organisations, from shopping centres to high streets, become aware of the importance of accessible recycling facilities. Within the workplace, recycling facilities are often lacking and messaging is not always clear.

There are various initiatives around for businesses to achieve recycling targets. Organisations are sometimes unsure of where to start, where to go for advice, how easy it can be to implement. If they already have some form of recycling, may not realise that it’s incredibly easy to build upon. There is also an abundance of free material available online, and programmes that are free to join which will offer advice. It is vital that businesses have a good recycling programme in place, not just to achieve their recycling goals but also as a way to spread the recycling message to a wider audience. After all, if recycling messages in the workplace are simple and effective, these will the recycling habit will spread into the home and have an even wider impact.

To start beverage can recycling in the workplace click here  

 

Cans: The myths exploded (part 2)

Following on from our recent blog post, we wanted to look at another common misconception that people have about cans and dispel the rumours.

Some say: Cans are an environmentally unfriendly beverage package

The truth: The production of beverage cans has been made more environmentally compatible over the past 20 years. Since 1992, 50cl aluminium and steel cans are 18 percent and 26 percent lighter respectively, which means that the positive impacts are less raw material, less energy to produce and less transportation. In fact, the wall of a can is thinner than a human hair.

Not only have cans been made substantially lighter, but aluminium and steel are very easy to re-smelt, reducing the energy needed to make new cans. For the environmental footprint of beverage cans, apart from their weight, recycling is imperative. Every beverage can, whether it is made of steel or aluminium, can be recycled an infinite number of times. Since metals never lose any quality during recycling, they can be used repeatedly for new high-quality products. In addition, recycling beverage cans saves up to 95 percent of the energy required to make new metal, thereby reducing carbon emissions. Everyone can do their bit because each can that is recycled reduces the carbon footprint and environmental impact of the next can.

 For information about recycling your beverage cans click here