Residents in Newtown urged to recycle metal

A new campaign called ‘Metal Matters’ promoting metal packaging recycling has been introduced by Powys County Council.

In a bid to improve kerbside recycling rates, households across the county are being encouraged to recycle their metal packaging including food and drink cans, aluminium wrapping foil and foil trays, as well as empty aerosols and metal screw tops in their red kerbside collection box.

The council is reminding us that a typical household on average over a year uses the following metal packaging:

600 food cans
380 drink cans
180 foil trays
12 metres of wrapping foil
27 aerosols
All are endlessly recyclable, over and over again and can be transformed into any type of metal product from a paper clip, to a car engine component, an iron, to a washing machine or even transformed back into a food can or drink!

Aluminium and steel can be endlessly recycled without losing any quality. It can take as little as 60 days for a drink can to be recycled and back on the supermarket shelf as a new can.

The campaign is part funded and managed by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) and working with Powys council, the ‘MetalMatters’ programme will use targeted social media and digital messaging, school visits and community outreach to communicate the widespread benefits of recycling your metal household packaging.

Starting in June, it is hoped that within the six-week long campaign, we can engage with the majority of the 67,000+ households in Powys. Since its launch in 2012, more than 121 local authorities have adopted MetalMatters, with recycling rates improving as a result.

Matt Perry, Powys County Council’s Chief Officer – Place, commented: “We know that the vast majority of people here in Powys are great at recycling, but together we can all make the effort to do more.

“MetalMatters allows us to engage with our residents and encourage them to think about their recycling habits and understand how best to correctly recycle their household metal packaging such as food and drink cans, foil trays, kitchen foil, empty aerosols, and metal bottle tops and jar lids.

“When we consider that for every recycled aluminium can we save enough energy to run a TV for three hours, we can all make a huge difference by recycling as much of our waste as possible.”

Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, added: “For more than a decade, our MetalMatters programme has been educating the public about the benefits and importance of recycling metal packaging. We’re confident that the introduction of this campaign will help to drive an increase in recycling rates and households taking positive action across Powys.

“For us, the most important message is that metal is infinitely recyclable, meaning the quality and properties of the metal will be unchanged during the recycling process. Making a few small changes can add up to a big environmental impact.”

Funded by the metal packaging industry, MetalMatters aims to educate householders about the benefits of metal packaging and encourage them to recycle. Designed to support kerbside recycling schemes, MetalMatters can be run by any local authority, either region-wide, by collection round or even by demographic targeting.

For more information about MetalMatters, visit, www.metalmatters.org.uk.

PICTURED: Tom Giddings, Executive Director, Alupro, Eleanor Shorland, Packaging Recycling Education Officer, Tata Steel and James Thompson, Waste Awareness & Enforcement Officer, Powys County Council.