Nuneaton and Bedworth: It’s Time to Make Your Metals Matter!

Over 17 million cans, foil trays and aerosols are used every year in Nuneaton and Bedworth.

Over 17 million cans, foil trays and aerosols are used every year in Nuneaton and Bedworth. The metal they are made from is endlessly recyclable and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council is determined to make sure every last one makes it into your recycling bin so that they can be transformed into something new.

Teaming up with the metal packaging manufacturing industry, Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council has selected parts of the Borough as ideal locations to launch the ‘Make Your Metals Matter’ campaign, targeting all 14,600 households. The ‘Make Your Metals Matter’ campaign will include leaflets sent to homes in the area and will be supported with posters, a social media campaign and schools across the Borough being offered free educational workshops, with the aim of reminding residents to recycle all of the metal packaging found around their home, including:

• Food and drink cans
• Foil trays
• Empty aerosols
• Metal screw tops – from glass bottles and jars
• Household aluminium wrapping foil – used for baking or wrapping leftovers

Over a year, the average household uses approximately 600 food tins, 380 drink cans, 27 aerosols and 182 foil trays – but less than half of these items are going into the recycling bin. By simply recycling all of the metal packaging used in Nuneaton and Bedworth each year, we would save around 472 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent to taking 100 cars off local streets for a year.

Used metal packaging can be recycled into new products at a far lower cost to the environment than making them from raw materials. Making cans from recycled material saves up to 95% of the energy, and greenhouse gas emissions, needed to make both aluminium and steel from scratch. What’s more, every time metal passes through the recycling loop, the benefits are repeated, again and again and again!

Cllr Jill Sheppard, Portfolio holder for Central Services said:

“Our residents are already committed to recycling and reducing waste which is great news. “We want to encourage all our residents to think about metal packaging found throughout their home, not just in the kitchen but also in the bathroom, bedroom and garage. Food and drink cans, foil and empty aerosols are all easily and endlessly recyclable. Don’t forget every can recycled saves enough energy to run a TV for four hours, so a small action like putting your empty bean tin into your brown lid recycling bin, can make a big difference.”

Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council were involved in the first MetalMatters campaign over 10 years ago where it was being trialled by WRAP (Waste Resources & Action Programme). Following that successful programme, MetalMatters has gone on to grow and has now been carried out in over 100 council areas, reaching over 6 million households.

The Nuneaton & Bedworth campaign is being jointly funded by MetalMatters, an industry partnership comprising the UK’s leading producers, users and recyclers of metal packaging and Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council along with its partners. The programme is managed by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) on behalf of the funding partners.

Rick Hindley, executive director of project managers Alupro, said:

“It is great to be able to work in partnership with Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council to promote the recycling of metal packaging it’s chosen areas. This campaign has delivered significant increases in the amount of metal packaging collected for recycling in other parts of the UK, so we are aiming to repeat – and hopefully better this in the area”

For more information on recycling in Nuneaton & Bedworth, visit: www.nuneatonandbedworth.gov.uk/recycle-right