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MetalMatters recycling campaign launches
Do you recycle your household metal? MetalMatters hope that Bristol will become even better at recycling, and thus live up to its green credentials, as a scheme to educate residents about the values of metal packaging was launched across the city.
Rick Hindley, executive director of Alupro
“By the end of September 2017, we will actually have launched the MetalMatters campaign to five million households across the UK, since 2012,” says Rick Hindley, executive director of The Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation – Alpuro – who manage the project.
“It is a campaign which has delivered consistent increases in capture rates for metal packaging. Who knows what’s going to happen in Bristol, but we’ve got a good feeling for it. As the previously green capital of the UK, hopefully the residents of Bristol are very receptive to the messages. We’d all like to come back in six months and be able to celebrate a significant uplift in the metal recycling in Bristol.”
is needed now More than ever
Metal packaging, including cans, can be recycled again and again
Bales of compressed metal packaging were stacked up high at Bristol Waste Company during the launch. They served as a reminder of the vast quantities of waste that Bristol throws out which can be so easily recycled.
According to the campaign’s astounding statistics, recycling the 230 million cans, foil trays and aerosols that are thrown out annually in Bristol would save up to 95 per cent of the energy used to create these aluminium and steel products from scratch.
MetalMatters is encouraging residents that even small acts can have a big impact on energy use – recycling just two cans saves enough energy to run a computer for 12 hours. What’s more, the possibilities for saving energy from metal recycling are endless, as the same metal from these day-to-day packaging types can be recycled over and over again.
“This is a tried and tested campaign,” says Emma Williams, marketing officer for Bristol Waste Company. “Bristol’s currently good at recycling, but we can always do better – I think we just need a bit of a reminder.”
Bristol Waste’s recycling trucks, ready to collect your metal
Leaflets for MetalMatters, which detail the metal products that residents can look out for when recycling, are being sent to 197,000 houses in Bristol.
Along with this, advertisements on buses, radio and TV stations are being rolled out, all in the hopes that Bristolians will be motivated to throw metal products into green recycling bins more often.
The campaign is sending a strong message that recycling day-to-day metal packaging can have a huge effect on the city’s carbon footprint, waste disposal and energy use. It feels like a tiny action, but it really does matter.
For more information about the campaign, visit www.bristolwastecompany.co.uk/whats-happening/metal-matters-launch
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