Each of the 119,000 households in the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service area has received a leaflet directly through their door, featuring visuals that demonstrate the types of new products that can be made from metal packaging, such as cans, tins, foil and empty aerosols.
The organisation behind the leaflets – Metal Matters – claim to have communicated with over 5 million households across 84 local authorities areas to date. MetalMatters added that it has seen an average increase of 12-18% in metal packaging capture rates, with some councils achieving increased rates of 25-28%.
MetalMatters is funded by the metal packaging and recycling industry and leading brand owners. It is supported by the Waste & Resources Action Programme and managed by Alupro.
Communications
Supporting communications also include signage on collection vehicles, local roadshows and a social media campaigns to reinforce the MetalMatters messages.
Cambridge city council recycled 53% of its household waste last year and its executive councillor for environmental services, Rosy Moore, said she hopes this campaign well help increase this while maintaining the “respectable” 53% obtained this financial year.
She said: “We are keen to maximise use of our resources in order to maintain a high standard of service for residents – capturing and recycling more high value materials is a great contribution to that end.”
Cover costs
The campaign is being jointly funded by MetalMatters and the Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service involving the local authorities. MetalMatters says the revenue from the additional metals collected in previous campaigns have allowed authorities to cover their costs within 12 months. Other councils to be involved in the scheme include Orkney and Leeds.
Cabinet member for environmental services, Cllr Mark Howell said: “We are confident that the campaign will have a significant positive impact on the behaviour of our recyclers, providing a boost for our metal packaging recycling figures and hopefully our overall recycling rate too.”
Related links
MetalMatters
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