Why should we bother to recycle in the UK?

Facilities exist to recycle all of the nearly 9.5bn beverage cans consumed in the UK. However, though the drinks can recycling rate in the UK has come on leaps and bounds with over half of all cans consumed being recycled, there is more to be done. Metal is infinitely recyclable.  In fact, a drinks can could be back on the shelf as a brand new one in as little as 6 weeks,  resulting in up to 95% less energy consumption than it takes to make one from virgin material. This means a significant reduction in CO² emissions and a substantial cost saving to be made.

The government has announced that recycling targets for all aluminium and steel packaging for 2013-2017 will increase by 3% and 1% per year, respectively, from 2013. The current rates for 2012 are 40% for aluminium and 71% for steel. Whilst there is a lot of debate surrounding these targets, one thing is clear, recycling is hugely important.

If every can in the UK was recycled, around 1,080,387 tonnes of CO² emissions could be saved and more than 144,000 tonnes of steel and aluminium could be diverted from landfill*, all of which could go into making brand new products from metal – not just new cans. Aside from the environmental benefits of recycling, metal is the most valuable commodity that can be saved from the waste stream. Metal that is collected through recycling programmes can be sold on and there is strong evidence that some recycling programmes can pay for themselves and even generate a profit if they are run effectively.

Everyone has a significant part to play to make sure metal stays in the recycling loop, and it doesn’t matter if you are part of a big corporation, small business or an individual. If everyone tries to recycle the cans they use, there will be significant benefits to the environment as well as financial benefits.

*Figures based on calculations verified by 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 

‘i luv my can’ competition closes with a bang

i luv my can competition entry

One of the biggest challenges we, as an industry, face is encouraging consumers to recycle their beverage cans.  Arguably, the trick lies in making recycling fun.  Enter i luv my can— the nationwide search for the most imaginative and creative use of old beverage cans.  The competition, which has come to a successful climax, was designed to show consumers the many ways in which cans can be reused and to demonstrate the can’s infinite recyclability.

i luv my can encouraged consumers aged 16 upwards to turn ordinary beverage cans into beautiful and exciting creations.  The options were limitless –creative (and not-so-creative) types all over the country were asked to send in the most inventive ways to reuse a can.

The amount of entries received was phenomenal and proved that consumers do, in fact, want to recycle.  Please visit the iluvmycan website for a rundown of all the entries.  Look out for a can taking flight, throwing itself down wild waters, and even turning into fashion pieces worthy of Kate Moss.

From the very best of the entries, ranging from can accessories, can artwork, and even dancing cans, a winner will be crowned later this month and will receive a £1000 cash prize and a year’s supply of their favourite canned drink.

The winner of each of the 10 categories will also be presented with a trophy and the best creations will be auctioned to raise money for the Art Fund, the UK’s leading charity that helps secure great art for museums and galleries.

Check back later this month for a full list of the winners, and details about how your organisation can bid for them to help raise money for the Art Fund.

In the meantime, we want to know what wins your vote on the iluvmycan website.  Share your thoughts here.

Cans: the myths exploded (part 1)

The beverage can is the most recyclable form of drinks packaging in the world. In this blog post we will address common can misconceptions and set the record straight.

Some Say: The recycling of a can does not have much of an effect on the environment.

The Truth: Every recycled can counts … and helps save the environment! Saving drinks cans for recycling means that they don’t end up at landfill sites. As every single part of every can collected can be recycled, it also means that there is no waste. Around nine tonnes of CO2 are saved for every tonne of aluminium recycled. Metal can be endlessly recycled, meaning that environmental savings stack up. In fact, every can recycled cuts the carbon footprint of the next can.

Some Say: The production of metal is energy intensive – even more so than other options. That’s why cans are a less preferable drinks package.

The Truth: Yes, producing metal from raw materials does use a lot of energy which is why recycling is so important. Can recycling saves as much as 95 per cent of the energy required to produce virgin materials. Continual lightweighting also means that it is now possible to make 60 cans (holding 30 litres of beverages) with only 1kg of aluminium. A BCME study found that beverage cans produce around 45 percent fewer emissions across the supply chain than other options.

27 million drinks cans recycled by Every Can Counts in workplaces

Every Can Counts, the away from home drinks can recycling programme funded by the leading European and UK drinks can manufacturers and aluminium and steel packaging reprocessors, has had a very successful second year.   It helped businesses to collect 27 million used aluminium and steel beverage cans for recycling across the UK in 2010. The figure is equivalent to each employee at organisations registered with the programme recycling four cans per month.¹

Every Can Counts calculates that by enabling over 394 tonnes of drinks cans to be recycled last year over 4000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions have been avoided.

Every Can Counts provides businesses with a branded recycling programme enabling them to launch and promote drinks can recycling. Over the past two years the programme has been embraced by over 400 organisations keen to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and encourage their staff and customers to recycle more.

Organisations using the programme range across the public and private sector and from SMEs to FTSE-listed companies.  All are using Every Can Counts to help them achieve corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability objectives, including zero waste to landfill targets. Two years after its launch there are over 4000-branded collection points around the UK in offices, shopping centres, universities and tourist attractions.  Results from participating organisations show that although the programme specifically targets drinks cans, volumes of other recyclables also increase as a result of using the range of Every Can Counts-branded resources.

1. The data above has been calculated and verified using methodology endorsed by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

For more information visit www.everycancounts.co.uk/about. You can also follow on Facebook and Twitter or watch videos on their YouTube channel.

Beverage cans post strong growth across Europe amid harsh economic conditions



BCME releases 2010 beverage can market statistics

UK beverage can market passes 9bn

 

In 2010, the European beverage can market hit 54.1bn cans, up 5.2% from 2009. The latest statistics from BCME (Beverage Can Makers Europe) show that despite tough economic conditions last year, there was strong growth in the beverage can market in Europe.

 

The UK market reached an important milestone in 2010, passing the 9bn can mark, up 7% on 2009. The UK soft drinks market increased by 12.3% on 2009 and the dynamism of the sector is shown by the fact that shipments have increased by 1bn in two years. In 2010, soft drinks represented over 50% of all drinks can shipments for the first time since 2002.

 

The soft drinks category showed marked growth across Europe, with figures up 7.5% year on year, with 26.4bn cans shipped. Beer market growth was 3.2% or a total of 27.7bn cans shipped. Main regional drivers for soft drinks growth were Austria, UK, Scandinavia, Germany, Turkey and CIS, whilst Scandinavia, France, Germany pushed beer market growth. New filling lines in France and Scandinavia also contributed to the strong growth figures, whilst the energy drinks market continues to expand rapidly across Europe.

 

Domestic consumption drove growth in Germany, with consumption growing by around 300m cans, a 46% increase on 2009. This has, in no small part, been driven by the re-listing of cans in two major supermarket chains, highlighting widespread consumer acceptance of the beverage can.

 

Commenting on the new statistics, BCME Marketing Committee Chairman Caroline Archer said: “2010 was a difficult year for many with decreased consumer spending and heightened economic tension; however the beverage can market was one of the success stories. Major brands continue to push the can as a key part of their pack mix and the use of slim and sleek cans has increased markedly. As predicted, the World Cup had a strong positive influence on beverage can consumption, particularly for beer cans as they are convenient for consumers when socialising at home with friends.”

 

“Beverage cans offer fillers, retailers and consumers benefits such as convenience, supply chain efficiency and outstanding product integrity. Cans are uniquely sustainable, being made from metals that are permanent materials so they are 100% recyclable and the metal can be recycled indefinitely to create new products. Using recycled aluminium to make new products saves 95% of the energy associated with the production of virgin metal; and for steel the equivalent figure is 75%. It is important to note that the beverage can is the most recycled drinks pack in the world.” added Archer. “Through infrastructure improvements and initiatives to improve consumer recycling behaviour, BCME is committed to supporting further increases in recycling rates throughout Europe.”

 

BCME (Beverage Can Makers Europe) is a non-profit making association, whose prime objective is to provide facts and figures on the beverage can in Europe and to communicate market data. BCME members are the major European beverage can manufacturers Ball, Crown and Rexam.

See www.bcme.org

 

 

It’s time to get serious

2010 will prove an interesting year for the aluminum sector with recycling targets set to increase shortly – and significantly if industry expectations are correct.

With Environment Minister, Dan Norris, determined to quite rightly push the UK as a strong contender in the European ‘champion’s league’ for recycling packaging, the industry is bracing itself for considerable changes. A consultation on packaging targets for the period between 2011 to 2020 is due to take place in early 2010 so the industry is currently preparing itself for the increased pressure. The current 40% target for this year looks like it may be dwarfed by a suggested 75% for upcoming years.

75% is a tall order. But we must put this in perspective. Overall, we’re not doing badly as a nation as over 60% of packaging waste is now recycled in the UK. However, this is only mid-table compared to other European countries. We need to improve on what we’ve started and beverage can recycling can certainly lead the way here with its obvious recycling benefits such as cube efficiency and lightweight nature. Programmes such as Every Can Counts are beginning to have a real impact nationwide on ‘away from home’ recycling, demonstrating just how easy it can be to dispose of your can in an environmentally way when on the move.

It’s a case of watch this space – but it may just be what we need to really start being taken seriously as a green nation.