Metal recycling campaign launches for the East Riding

Campaign encourages residents to recycle all metal packaging in their blue bins

Residents in the East Riding are being encouraged to take part in a campaign to boost the recycling of metal packaging in their blue bins – following a successful trial held last year.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s waste and recycling team launched the MetalMatters campaign on (Thursday 5 September) in Bridlington.

The aim of the scheme is to encourage residents to place the following metal packaging items in their blue bins so they can be recycled:

Food tins
Drink cans
Foil trays
Foil – just scrunch into a ball
Empty aerosols
Metal screw tops – from glass bottles and jars
Biscuit and sweet tins … Please make sure all items are empty and clean.

For the project, the council has joined forces with MetalMatters, a national, industry-funded communications campaign.

Last year around 40,000 residents in the Goole, Howden, Pocklington and Market Weighton areas took part in a successful trial of the MetalMatters programme.

Their support of the campaign led to a 22-tonne increase in metal packaging collected in blue bins in that area in the first six months following its launch in October 2018.

That’s the equivalent of almost 1.5 million empty drink cans!

The amount of aluminium alone placed in blue bins in the trail area increased from 43 tonnes to 62 tonnes – that’s an increase of 44%.

Thanks to the success of that trial, the MetalMatters campaign is now being rolled out across the East Riding.

From next week (from Monday 9 September) around 114,000 residents across the rest of the East Riding will receive a MetalMatters leaflet through their doors containing recycling tips and advice.

The council’s waste and recycling officers will also be holding a series of roadshows across the area to promote the campaign.

Councillor Chris Matthews, portfolio holder for strategic management at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “East Riding residents are the number one recyclers in England and have already shown their commitment to reducing waste.

“If we replicated the success of last year’s trial across the whole of the East Riding, residents could help us recycle an extra 160 tonnes of metal packaging per year – that’s the equivalent of more than 10 million empty drink cans, which would be amazing.”

Similar MetalMatters campaigns have run in 98 other local authority areas, reaching 6 million households since 2012.  The programme is managed by Alupro, the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation.

Rick Hindley, executive director of Alupro, said: “It is great to be able to work in partnership with East Riding of Yorkshire Council to promote the recycling of metal packaging.

“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 East Riding.”

East Riding of Yorkshire Council has been the top recycling authority in the country for two years running, recycling more household waste than any other council in England.

MetalMatters facts:

Over a year, the average household uses around 600 food tins, 380 drinks cans, 27 aerosols and 182 foil trays – but less than half of these items are being placed in blue bins for recycling.
Metals are endlessly recyclable. 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.
By simply recycling all metal packaging used in homes across the East Riding each year residents could save around 4,900 tonnes of carbon dioxide - the equivalent of taking 1,000 cars off local streets for a year.

For more information on the MetalMatters campaign visit www.eastriding.gov.uk/environment/bins-rubbish-recycling/metal-matters/

For more information on recycling visit www.eastriding.gov.uk/bins