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.

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

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

 

 

WRAP guest blogger Melanie Chilton, Local Communications Officer- Waste Prevention

We are delighted to welcome Melanie Chilton, Local Communications Officer – Waste Prevention at WRAP as a guest blogger to talk about the organisation and its activity to promote sustainability.  WRAP has had integral involvement with metalmatters and Every Can Counts, two programmes which work to promote the sustainability of the beverage can both on-the-go and within the home.  Melanie gives us a brief overview of some of their current activity and communications programmes:

 WRAP, also known more fully as the Waste and Resources Action Programme, is a varied and far-reaching organisation primarily funded by Defra and the devolved Governments. We cover aspects of the whole resource efficiency loop; working on a wide range of projects from facilitating voluntary agreements to working with industry to improve building design and minimise construction waste.

 One of the key parts of the whole process is also to communicate issues and solutions to consumers and stakeholders. Our communications team is responsible for many successful national campaigns to date, which has included Recycle Now see www.recyclenow.com. Many of you may remember the early possibilities are endless TV adverts. Also more recently we launched the Love Food Hate Waste campaign see www.lovefoodhatewaste.com which has helped reduce the amount of food going to landfill by 670,000 tonnes.

 An integral part of WRAP’s role in communications is to work directly with Local Authorities. WRAP offers support to them on both operational and communications advice. We support them to improve their collection schemes and achieve maximum participation and value for money in the existing schemes they have.

 If often costs an authority very little to collect more recyclables through existing infrastructure, so through good communications we ensure they achieve maximum scheme performance and achieve even greater recycling rates.

 The hot topics for Local Authorities are targets, efficiencies, and waste reduction but for many their recycling schemes are still not as effective as they could be, and with the pressure to communicate more, for less they are seeking more in-depth advice from WRAP about targeted communications.

 WRAP has been extremely pleased to team up recently with the metals industry, through the BCME, and trial the metalmatters programme. The work sought to increase metal capture through a successful targeted communications campaign and pull upon joint expertise.

 The programme has been innovative; in that it not only used demographic tools to target specific areas but it also sought to target specific messages to specific audiences. The aim of the programme/work has been to ensure maximum impact for minimum spend.

 Although we are awaiting the final results of this, early indications are pleasing, and we are continuing to take the evidence from this forward and work with authorities to create targeted campaigns to improve capture of other key recyclable materials such as paper and plastics.

Beverage Can Sustainability in Europe part two

 In the last blog post, we looked at some of the beverage can sustainability projects that BCME is involved with in France and Spain.  In this post, we will look at activity occurring in two other European countries, Poland and Austria.  Every country has a different approach to sustainability and these projects aim to increase the beverage can recycling rates through education and increasing accessibility.

 In Poland, there are two projects helping BCME to move closer to its recycling goals.  These are Recan and Recal.  Recan, an organisation that operates across Europe to ensure used beverage cans are returned to the production process as raw materials for new cans, has a major presence in Poland.  Here it is developing recycling centres where used beverage cans are sorted, compressed to briquettes and returned to the can production cycle.  The centres cooperate with waste management companies, local scrap metal dealers, supermarkets, shopping centres, petrol stations s and other local facilities to provide a network of collection points that ensure consumers have a close-at-hand facility to which they can return used beverage cans.  Recal- the Foundation for the Recovery of Used Beverage Cans- in which BCME members have a stake, has managed to boost Polish drinks can recycling rates through a programme of environmental workshops and seminars targeted at school children (including pre-schoolers), students and council workers.  For schools and colleges, the Foundation supplies special information packs containing educational materials to help teachers organise classes highlighting the importance of recycling, and bags and containers for collecting, which are all free.  There are also colourful charts for students which highlight the aluminium recycling process.  Over 8,000 special packs have been distributed by the Recal Foundation since its inception.

In Austria, a key development for the progress of can recycling has been trials of separate collections for drinks containers where they are consumed.  Many people in Austria have previously had to bring their beverage containers home in order for them to be collected, which is not convenient and means that less can be collected.  A pilot scheme, launched in malls in Vienna could herald a change.  BCME members have secured funding from ARA (the Austrian packaging recycling organisation) to work with local authorities in conjunction with the country-wide collection scheme to set up a system whereby drinks cans and other drinks containers are collected in separate bins and bags.  Not only is this more convenient, it also means that more cans can be collected for recycling and the consumer can appreciate that their empty cans will be recycled.

As you can see, sustainability is a very important issue and BCME’s involvement in these programmes is helping BCME get closer to its goal of recycling three out of four beverage cans in Europe.

“metalmatters” kerbside recycling trials aiming for more metal packaging recycling in UK homes

“metalmatters”, a partnership between the UK drinks can manufacturers, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the aluminium and steel recycling industries, is now coming to the end of its trial in two UK boroughs. “metalmatters” is an innovative awareness programme designed to support the UK’s current kerbside recycling schemes and encourage the public to recycle more at home. The scheme looks at assisting householders in recycling ever increasing amounts of packaging material, avoiding disposal costs and benefitting the environment.

In depth research and focus groups were conducted to understand the barriers that Local Authorities face when trying to drive up recycling rates in the home. Although 85 per cent of the population have access to a recycling scheme, research has shown that consumer awareness of what can actually be recycled is still low in some areas. The pilot scheme, currently running in Nuneaton and Bedworth and select households in Hampshire, is being supported by proactive marketing programmes which include leaflet drops to over 57,000 households, a consumer information roadshow, PR activity and poster campaigns.

“metalmatters” has been greeted by Local Authorities with enthusiasm as an important opportunity to help drive up recycling rates in the local community and a good example of industry taking an active role in supporting Local Authorities. Findings from the pilot scheme will be analysed during the autumn and success then measured. The goal of the programme is to create a proven resource that can be used by all Local Authorities to support behavioural change and thereby encourage more recycling at home.

Beverage cans go social

The Recycling Machine Facebook game launches today and will see consumers recycling their cans virtually to be in with a chance of winning gift vouchers to purchase music online.

Every day, from Thursday 1st April 2010 to Friday 9th July 2010, there will be a draw to give a prize randomly to 2 winners. These 2 winners will be selected randomly from the players who have recycled at least one beverage can during the day.

The more cans a player recycles, the more chances he has of winning a prize. The winners will each receive a user code for the online music site Spotify™, in the form of a link they have to click on. This code gives the winner access to a two months’ subscription to Spotify™.

On the final day of the competition, Friday 9 April 2010, a list of 10 players who have recycled most of cans will be announced. Those 10 best players will receive:
o €1000 to win for the best recycler
o €600 to win for the second best recycler
o €400 to win for the third best recycler
o €250 to win for the fourth best recycler
o €150 to win from the fifth to the tenth best recycler

http://apps.facebook.com/recycling-machine/

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.

We need to be putting more energy into our core communications

With energy drinks being the fastest-growing sector of all canned drinks today, it’s crucial that we spend more time educating the average consumer on why they should be/continue buying these drinks in cans and, more importantly, be recycling them. The average consumer may not necessarily care about the technical side of why they should recycle their can but there’s a lot to be said for appropriately persuading them to switch to cans when choosing their energy drink of choice. With the right level of communications from brands and organizations, people will feel that they’re doing their bit for the environment without it impacting their lifestyle significantly.

Consumers need to be reminded of the benefits of cans that they can relate to. Brands need to highlight the fact that they are easy to carry, unbreakable and light (random fact for the day: the wall of a can is actually thinner than a human hair!) – ideal for those active energy drink consumers who are often on the go. They’re also the only containers that are both light-proof and oxygen tight, keeping the drink at its best for longest. What’s more for those into their sports, drinks in cans chill fastest making them convenient and refreshing. And recycling drinks cans is easy and accessible. You don’t have to hunt far these days to find a suitable recycling point.

One of the main challenges here? Men are the most frequent consumers of canned drinks, including energy drinks. We also know that men often make their purchasing decisions on impulse or brand perception. Brands and organizations therefore need to tailor their communications to reflect and engage this target market and educate them in a way that will genuinely have an impact. This is something we’ll revisit in a later blog…

Every Can Counts at show

Rick Hindley, Alupro

We’ve just had a really busy few days launching the Every Can Counts workplace recycling programme at the Facilities Show at the NEC. An amazing number of people came to the show, thanks in no small part I think to the clever organisational tactic of running separate but related exhibitions on all the topics a facilities or buildings manager could wish for, such as health and safety, security and fire – as well as facilities management. May not sound thrilling, but all the more reason perhaps to group the exhibitions together …

Three members of our team were kept busy for pretty much the whole three days, with enquiries from all sectors – manufacture, distribution and retail, as well as public services and government – so we’re hopeful of a high conversion rate from enquiry to programme implementation.

We provide branded collection boxes for the workplace, plus plenty of resources to make sure that everyone recycles every drinks can they use – massive energy and resource savings to reduce carbon footprint. The number of commercial waste companies which also provide recycling collection services (essential to efficient workplace recycling) is growing all the time, and it’s well worth ensuring your business asks this question when renewing contracts.

We’ve also just taken delivery of the first branded Can-crushers – brilliant collection containers with a pull-down handle to crush the cans, which are ideal for high-profile public spaces, and a bit of fun to use.