Campaign launched to recycle more metal in Calderdale

Residents in Calderdale are being asked to recycle more metal

People in Calderdale use over 110 million cans, foil trays and aerosols every year – if they were all recycled it would save enough energy to power a television for two days in every home in the borough.

The Council and SUEZ have teamed up with the metal packaging manufacturing industry to launch the ‘Make your Metals Matter’ campaign, encouraging every one of Calderdale’s 94,000 households to put metals in their white recycling sack along with their plastics as part of their weekly recycling collections.

The aim of the campaign is to remind residents to recycle all of the metal packaging found around their home, including: Drink cans, food tins, foil trays, empty aerosols, metal screw tops and kitchen foil wrapping.

Cllr Barry Collins, Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, said: “Calderdale residents are already committed to recycling and reducing waste. In the last year we have collected an extra 2000 tonnes of recycling, which is great news.

"We want to encourage our residents to think about metal packaging found throughout their home.

"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 white recycling sack can make a big difference.”

The Calderdale campaign is being jointly funded by MetalMatters, an industry partnership comprising the UK’s leading producers, users and recyclers of metal packaging and SUEZ the local waste contractor.

The MetalMatters 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 Calderdale Council and SUEZ 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 Calderdale.”