Alupro campaign targets metal bottle caps

The Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) is spearheading the You Can Leave Your Cap On campaign, launched this week (July 3) in partnership with British Glass and the European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA).

Sevenoaks District Council is the first local authority to sign up to the communications initiative, which aims to encourage residents not to throw metal screw tops away separately.

Research conducted by Alupro into the UK closure market found that an estimated 5,000 tonnes of aluminium from caps and closures could be recovered from metal screw tops on glass bottles that are currently thrown away.

And, Alupro claims that by extracting the metal during the glass recycling process, approximately 2 million in aluminium could be diverted from landfill. The research also found that communication focusing on recycling caps or closures through both kerbside collection and bring bank systems did not exist in the UK.

Habit

Alupro executive director Rick Hindley, said: The market for aluminium bottle closures is growing rapidly, particularly for wine bottles, so it is important that the consumer gets in the habit of recycling them so that the aluminium can be captured for reprocessing.

The message to the public is simple; screwing the top back on the empty bottle before recycling is the easiest way for people to do their bit to recycle this valuable material.

Sevenoaks District Council, which will display campaign stickers on each of its 223 recycling bring banks, is the first of four local authorities to pilot the campaign, with Dartford, Portsmouth and Bedford also taking part.

The drive is also to be reinforced via the councils website, a newsletter and through local media.

Potential

Avril Hunter, deputy cabinet member for the environment, Sevenoaks District Council, said: Screw tops are a far from insignificant part of the waste stream, and because they are made from aluminium their recycling potential is enormous.

Thanks to modern recycling methods aluminium bottle tops are easier to recover for recycling when they are collected with the glass, so it is now possible to recycle and continue re-using this precious metal over and over again.

Were urging our residents to help by simply screwing the top back onto the empty bottle and dropping it in their local bottle bank.

Funding

Rebecca Cooking, head of container affairs at British Glass, which contributed funding to the campaign, welcomed the important role bring banks play in ensuring good quality glass is returned to the system.

She said: We see this as an excellent campaign that both informs and helps the consumer to recycle as much as possible.

As the first initiative of its kind in Europe, Alupro is resolved that all collected material will be officially reported through the PRN system, with results to be measured and announced later in the autumn. The drive follows a series of promotional campaigns to recycle more metal packaging at the kerbside by MetalMatters last year, which reached an estimated two million homes across 31 local authorities (see letsrecycle story).