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.

The evolution of the drinks can: changing the consumer’s can

Since the drinks can’s introduction in the 1930s, society has continually changed and evolved but through it all, the drinks can has remained a popular drinks pack. This is the first of two blogs that explore how drinks cans have changed with society.

 

It was the 1930s that the drinks can came about. The world was much smaller thanks to intercontinental flights and the start of air mail. Good ideas and inventions could then spread across the globe at a faster pace. Canned beer was first developed in 1930 in the US. Easier communication of ideas meant that technology evolved in the UK and it was introduced in 1935.  The first cans were constructed from three pieces of metal with a cone-shaped top, looked like bottles and had a screw cap.

The period between the thirties and sixties was one of war, upheaval, rebuild, austerity and rigidity. In the sixties, views began to relax as did licensing laws. Alcohol became more widely available in supermarkets, for which cans were perfectly suited. Light and durable, cans also required minimal shelf space.

More changes in social attitudes and desires in the seventies saw supermarkets increase product variety and choice, so less shelf space was available. This was ideal for cans which, thanks to the new two-piece construction, could be stacked and easily displayed. Multipacks were also increasingly popular and the introduction of ring-pulls did away with keys, adding another level of convenience and saw a marked increase in canned drink sales.

The eighties – an extremely difficult economic period at the start finished with boom and economic growth. Manufacturing improvements and efficiency were vital and the can underwent lightweighting and continual innovation.  By 1981, two-piece cans led the UK market. In the second half of the decade, times had changed as had consumers’ lifestyles and the can remained popular – still drinks in cans were introduced, the retained ring-pull was developed and a lighter can with a more cost-effective way of production was in place.

Our next blog will explore the nineties, the “naughties” and present day.

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

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).

‘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.

Education is the key to increasing recycling at home

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•  Pilot project sees increase in recycling rates of 12.9%
• 22% increase in recycling of 17 or more items regularly
• Lack of awareness a barrier to recycling at home: perceived as a “waste of time”

metalmatters announced the results of a groundbreaking pilot project designed to increase kerbside metal recycling rates. The project, conducted in conjunction with two local authorities, delivered significant results including a 12.9% increase in metals recycled in the biggest trial area of 54,283 households.

 The project, the first of its kind, was conducted in cooperation with Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and East Hampshire District Council. metalmatters delivered a community outreach programme which highlighted popular misconceptions about recycling and educated residents on the benefits of recycling as many items as possible.  There was an overall attitudinal shift as a result, with almost one in five respondents agreeing that the campaign had encouraged them to recycle more metals. The post project research also showed a 22% increase in those who reported recycling 17 or more items regularly.

metalmatters has set a new benchmark for projects in this industry by using extensive research and consumer testing to develop and refine messages and communications collateral to create a targeted metals campaign.  Using the Acorn classification tool, metalmatters evaluated those materials against demographic groups alongside recycling behaviour and competence levels.

Norman Lett, Project Leader, metalmatters, commented: “The project’s goal was to increase existing household metal recycling rates by at least 10% and create a ‘best practice’ model.  We came to understand that the key to success was education, to encourage people to recycle more things, more often.  In our pre-campaign research many people thought recycling was either a waste of time or that, despite their best efforts, the materials then didn’t actually get recycled.  Metals are a precious resource as they are infinitely recyclable and it makes a real difference if they go back into the recycling loop.  The consumer wanted reassurance of this.”

Councillor Bill Shepherd, spokesperson for the Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, said:  “We are delighted with the results this project achieved, not only the increase in volumes recycled but also the shift in attitudes. The extensive research that went into metalmatters made it extremely effective in changing people’s recycling behaviour.”

Linda Horne, spokesperson for East Hampshire District Council, added: “East Hampshire residents have one of the best recycling rates in the UK, of which we are very proud.  Yet, despite this, the metalmatters project delivered increases in recycling rates that are significant.  It is certainly a programme others should consider.”   

About metalmatters

metalmatters is a partnership between the UK drinks can manufacturers, the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the aluminium and steel packaging and recycling industries.  It aims to encourage more people to recycle all of the metal packaging they use at home.  For more information visit the consumer website www.metalmatters.org.uk

 

metalmatters: Funding Partners

1. BCME (Beverage Can Makers Europe) is the European beverage can association whose prime objective is to promote the beverage can. The three members are: Ball Packaging Europe, Crown Bevcan Europe and Middle East and Rexam Beverage Can Europe & Asia

2. WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) WRAP’s vision is a world without waste, where resources are used sustainably.  We work with businesses and individuals to help them reap the benefits of reducing waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way.  Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  More information on all of WRAP’s programmes can be found on http://www.wrap.org.uk.

3. Novelis operates Europe’s only dedicated used aluminium can recycling plant in Warrington, Cheshire.  The plant has the capacity to recycle every aluminium can sold in the UK for the foreseeable future (currently 6.6 billion cans, which equates to approximately 101,000 tonnes in weight).

4. Tata Steel Packaging Recycling: Tata is the largest steel reprocessor in the UK. TATA Steel Packaging Recycling promotes steel packaging recycling to consumers, local authorities and the commercial sector

Every Can Counts gives recycling a boost at UK Unis

Every Can Counts is working with the National Union of Students to launch a new initiative that aims to improve recycling on university campuses. The away from home recycling programme for drinks cans will be promoted as part of the ‘Degrees Cooler’ programme which is funded by the Greener Living Fund and sponsored by Defra. The Degrees Cooler programme aims to measurably increase the pro-environmental behaviour of staff and students across 20 universities in England. 

The first drinks can recycling campaign launched last week in partnership with student environmental campaigns organization People & Planet who are running Go Green Week (Feb 8 – 12). This week encourages students all over the country to take action to help save the planet.

As part of its support for Degrees Cooler, Every Can Counts will be promoting the sustainable benefits of increasing recycling rates of the drinks can by offering a range of support to participating universities and will be working with both staff and students to help increase recycling awareness. A complementary social media campaign is also being kicked-off to encourage a greater long-term awareness and commitment to recycling drinks cans amongst young people.

As part of Go Green Week, Every Can Counts is hosting the ’Can Film Festival’ at eight of the Degrees Cooler universities where students will be able to see a film free of charge simply by bringing along their empty drinks cans on the night.