MetalMatters has launched its most ambitious campaign to date with the Kent Waste Partnership in a move which has been praised by Resources Minister, Lord de Mauley.
The MetalMatters programme, led by the packaging recycling industry, is designed to increase the capture rate for metal packaging at the kerbsideby runningcommunications campaigns through work with local authorities and waste collectors.
The campaign in Kent will run until early December and will involve two direct mail drops to each of the 630,000 households in the county.It will alsoinvolvelocally-targeted advertising and awareness raising events.
The scheme has been praised by the new Minister for Resources, Lord de Mauley, who said: MetalMatters is a great example of how industry and local authorities can work together to engage local communities, drive up recycling rates and also support further development of our waste management and recycling sectors. The programme in Kent is on a very ambitious scale and we will follow this campaign with interest to see what it achieves.
Councillor Paul Barrington-King, chairman of KWP added: The partnership between the KWP and MetalMatters demonstrates the clear desire for Kent’s councils to work strategically and practically on improving the capture of valuable recyclates. The support of the Minister for the programme validates our supply chain approach is very much the way to go. It continues to place the KWP at the vanguard of supply chain thinking and activities.
The Kent Waste Partnership consists of all the district and borough councils in Kent – Ashford borough; Canterbury city; Dartford borough; Dover district; Gravesham borough; Maidstone borough; Sevenoaks district; Shepway district; Swale borough; Thanet district; Tonbridge and Malling borough; Tunbridge Wells borough – as well as Kent county council.
Campaign
The Metal Matters programme was launched in 2010 in a bid to promote metal packaging recycling and improve capture rates for the material. Other organisations that have worked with the programme include Zero Waste Scotland and Project Integra a group of councils in Hampshire.
The campaign is continuing to expand and in February 2012 it teamed up with acr21 and Bryson Recycling to launch the programme in Northern Ireland (see letsrecycle.com story).
Rick Hindley, executive director of aluminium recycling body Alupro, the organisation which manages the scheme, said: 2012 has been an exciting year for MetalMatters, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to run the programme on such a grand scale in Kent. We are looking forward to seeing how the campaign develops and the impact it has on household metal packaging and attitudes to recycling.
MetalMatters has conducted five campaigns during 2012 which covers 27 local authorities, reaching 1.5 million households.
Register for free to comment