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.

From a drinks can to a marketing tool

At first glance we see the drinks can for what it is best – a sustainable, durable and infinitely recyclable packaging source for beverages – but upon closer inspection it’s clear that the can is so much more than this.

Soft drinks producers and brewers recognise the many benefits of the can as a packaging option. Our recent figures show two billion extra cans were produced in Europe in 2012 for soft drinks and beer, and the current economic environment has seen a shift towards consumers opting for an evening in with a packaged beer from the supermarket over a night out in a bar.

Savvy firms are recognising the cans’ popularity and convenience so are using this to their advantage. With 59 billion cans produced for soft drinks and beer in Europe last year, brands are capitalising on this growth to use the beverage can as a simple and direct communications tool to get their message in front of their target audience.

To complement the familiar 360° can design and shape, brands are stepping up their use of campaign specific graphics and messaging. Diet Coke’s recent Marc Jacobs on-pack promotion successfully engaged its market with the chance to win a designer bag, whilst Carling tapped into the at-home drinking trend by offering purchasers of their four and eight can packs the chance to win one of two million ‘Brilliantly British’ prizes.

With competition high in the beverage can market, brands are fighting to stay ahead by offering consumers on-pack added extras like competitions and downloadable games, and new technology emerging from the beverage can manufacturers is helping this happen.

Whilst beverage cans are popular packaging choices for their resilience and ease of filling, it may be that as technology advances and brands become more adventurous consumers will find themselves recycling an all singing, all dancing but still infinitely recyclable beverage can.

MetalMatters marches on in 2012

Earlier in the year we looked at the arrival of the first MetalMatters campaign in South London. Here we review the impact of the campaigns that took place throughout the UK in 2012.

To sum it up, 2012 was quite simply a resounding success for MetalMatters. There were four campaigns rolled out across the UK tasked with boosting kerbside recycling of metal packaging, and another two programmes were developed that will report back in the coming months. Altogether they directly targeted 1.9 million households across 31 local authorities, and 13 of these expanded their recycling streams to include items such as foil trays, household foil and empty aerosols, providing a lasting boost for metal packaging recycling.

All of the completed 2012 campaigns recorded increased levels of metal packaging collected for recycling, and the campaign in Sefton, Merseyside saw recycling rates in the Borough rocket by 64%.

Cost effectiveness will always be a consideration for any local authority planning a new communications campaign, but MetalMatters’ 2012 results show it is an effective and affordable initiative that is now tried and tested. The Kent Waste Partnership campaign cost just 19p per household to run, and in Portsmouth the revenue generated by the additional metals captured will pay back the financial outlay within 12 months.

MetalMatters is cost-effective, simple to run and does what it says on the tin – gets people to recycle their metal packaging. The programme will be building on this success for 2013, with new campaigns that are ready to play their part in changing recycling behaviour across the UK.

European can production shows resilience in 2012

Figures compiled by Canadean for BCME have revealed the resilience of the can as production levels for beverage cans across Europe rise despite difficult marketing conditions.

The new figures show that there were more than 59 billion cans for soft drinks and beer produced in Europe during 2012, reflecting how soft drinks producers and brewers recognise the convenience and endless recyclability of the can.

A 3.7% increase on the previous years’ production rate equates to the manufacture of an impressive two billion extra cans, and comes despite the fact there has been an almost 1% drop in beer consumption across Europe.

The upward shift in can production was driven by strong performances in Eastern Europe, where can fillings grew 5.7%, and the Nordic region which grew by 4.6%. The 3.2% growth seen in Western Europe was well above GDP growth in the region, and this success was followed by 3.4% growth in the production of cans for soft drinks across Europe as a whole.

Overall fillings for cans for beer increased by 4% despite the fall in consumption, pointing to a noticeable long-term shift emerging in the beer market away from refillable glass bottles to cans. The economic challenges have resulted in people choosing to stay away from bars and instead purchase packaged beers from supermarkets to enjoy a night at home instead, and brewers are responding to this change.

The resilience of the beverage can, the ease of filling and its excellent recycling credentials all combine to ensure the can remains a popular choice of packaging for beer, soft drinks and energy cans.

Making metal matter

You may not realise it, but the average household gets through 600 food cans and 380 drinks cans each year, with nearly 16,000 tonnes of foil trays and 580 million aerosols consumed across the UK annually. This much waste can take up a lot of room at a landfill site, but it doesn’t need to be this way.

All of your metal packaging can be recycled and reused endlessly without losing its quality, and it can then be transformed into any type of metal product, from a paper clip to a washing machine, or an iron to a car engine component.

Many of us are eager to do our bit for the environment, and recycling our metal packaging is a simple way for us to play a role in getting a drinks can back on a supermarket shelf in just six weeks.

To encourage people to recycle more of their metal packaging, the MetalMatters campaign was established, and its first programme of 2013 has just kicked off in South London – its aim is to boost collection levels for metal packaging such as food and drink cans, aerosols and foil trays at kerbsides in the capital.

This is the first time that MetalMatters has arrived in London, and it will be interesting to see how attitudes towards recycling in the four Boroughs develop over the next six weeks of the campaign.

Calling all Student Scorsese Wannabes

The Can Makers have launched a nationwide search for the best video dispelling the myths around recycling drinks cans.  “Myth Busting – what happens to your drinks can when it’s recycled”,  jointly sponsored by the British Film Institute asks students to enter short videos exploring the myths of drinks can recycling, particularly what happens to our recycling, which is often misunderstood.  Entrants will have a chance to win £1,500 and be recognised nationally as a leading student filmmaker.

The celebrated British actor Danny Dyer leads a host of celebrities and experts from the environment, sustainability and film making industries who will be judging the entries.  The full list includes Danny Dyer, Actor; Craig Stevens, Sky Movies Presenter; Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent Film Critic; Jamie Crawford, Presenter and Environmental Filmmaker; Jennifer Granville, Director of Northern Film School, Leeds Metropolitan University; Dr Colin Church, DEFRA; and Noel Goodwin, BFI Education Programmer for Young People.

Entrants will need to submit a video, no more than two minutes in length, which busts some of the popular drinks can recycling myths.  Whether it’s an animation, a funny stunt or a short documentary, the winning student will be rewarded the top prize of £1,500.  The winner of each of the five sub-categories will win £500.

The closing date for entries is Thursday 28^th February 2013.
Full terms and conditions and information on how to enter are available on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CanMakersVideo.

The European Can Market Report 2011 has arrived

2011 was another positive one for the beverage can market, which enjoyed yet another year of growth in Europe. Drinks cans continue to be a popular choice for fillers and consumers alike. The annual BCME European Can Market Report details European trends, market performance, consumer behaviour, recycling activity and much more.

For fillers, the can offers a 360 degree billboard for brand promotion in addition to recyclability and on-the-go convenience. For consumers, the can offers a drinks pack which keeps its contents fresh whilst remaining cool and trendy. The drinks can continues to go from strength to strength, not only with its innovative shapes, the variety of sizes and finishes available, but also with expanding offerings available including ready mixed drinks and wine.

In Europe, BCME has been working with Metal Packaging Europe to highlight metal as a permanent material that is infinitely recyclable and reusable – a fact now recognised by the European Parliament, which has endorsed the European Commission’s Resource Efficiency Roadmap, specifically calling for ‘permanent materials’ such as metal to be made a new resource category. Within the report you will also find details of BCME’s commitment to sustainability through our continued support of recycling campaigns. We have been working hard to communicate best practice on every aspect of can handling.

With a whole host of sporting events across Europe, we hope that the beverage can continues to perform well in 2012. For more information about BCME and to read the report in full, visit http://www.bcme.org/home

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

MetalMatters, the kerbside recycling improvement programme, readies for expansion

Alupro has announced that it is to lead MetalMatters, the metal packaging industry’s kerbside recycling stimulation programme, on behalf of its funding partners.

Originally developed by Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME) in partnership with Novelis and Tata Steel, and supported by WRAP, the MetalMatters programme achieved impressive results in pilot programmes in two local authorities, improving kerbside capture rates for metal packaging.  The programme was named Communications Campaign of the Year at the recent CIWM Awards for Environmental Excellence.

Alupro will draw on its experience of managing the Aerofoil programme, which helped local authorities expand kerbside services to include aerosols and foil containers.  The focus initially will be on developing campaigns in strategic partnerships with local authorities and/or waste partnerships, and developing the funding base to ensure the programme becomes a showcase for extended Producer Responsibility for partners across the metal packaging industry.

As part of this process Coca Cola Enterprises Ltd (‘CCE’) has become the first packer/filler to partner with the programme, along with the UK’s leading foil container manufacturers i2r Packaging Solutions, Nicholl Food Packaging and Coppice Alupack.

‘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.