What can I recycle?

The Lonely Aerosol

Where can I recycle?

Why Recycle?

Because Sir David Attenborough says so!

Well that and the fact that we use over 200,000 tonnes of aluminium in packaging every year, that’s the same weight as 33,000 African Bush Elephants! But did you know there’s more to aluminium packaging than just drink cans? Aluminium is used to produce aerosols, foil trays, wrapping foil and bottle tops too.

Aluminium is strong, durable, easy to mold into all sorts of different shapes and extremely easy to recycle. In fact aluminium can be recycled over and over and over again because it can be melted and then reformed without losing any of it’s original qualities

– cool heh!

recycle bottle tops

When you recycle aluminium the recycling and new production process saves 95% of the energy used to make the original metal, it also saves 95% of the green house gas emissions produced!

Each UK household uses this much
recyclable aluminium packaging
every year!

380 DRINK CANS

182 FOIL TRAYS

144 METRES OF HOUSEHOLD FOIL

27 AEROSOLS

What can I recycle?

In the UK 100% of the drink cans made and sold are aluminium but there’s more to aluminium packaging than cans!

PRODUCT

DRINK CANS

WHERE TO FIND IT

In the fridge hopefully!

HOW TO RECYCLE IT

Empty and in your home recycling container.

PRODUCT

AEROSOLS

WHERE TO FIND IT

In the bedroom or bathroom – most deodorant and shaving foam aerosols are made from aluminium.

HOW TO RECYCLE IT

Must be EMPTY!!
Then pop into your home recycling container.

PRODUCT

FOIL TRAYS

WHERE TO FIND IT

Many oven-ready meals, pies and quiches sit in foil trays.

HOW TO RECYCLE IT

Must be free from food, a quick wipe or rinse will do and then pop in your home recycling container.

PRODUCT

WRAPPING FOIL

WHERE TO FIND IT

Used for roasting or to cover sandwiches or leftovers.

HOW TO RECYCLE IT

Must be free from food, a quick wipe or rinse will do. Then scrunch together with other pieces of foil to make a ball (about the size of a tennis ball) and pop in your home recycling container.

PRODUCT

FOIL LIDDING

WHERE TO FIND IT

Found on the top of yoghurt and cream pots, cream cheese and instant noodles among others.

HOW TO RECYCLE IT

Must be free from food, a quick wipe or rinse will do. Then scrunch together with other pieces of foil to make a ball (about the size of a tennis ball) and pop in your home recycling container.

PRODUCT

CHOCOLATE FOIL

WHERE TO FIND IT

You guessed it… wrapped around chocolate and sweets!

HOW TO RECYCLE IT

Must be free from food, a quick wipe or rinse will do. Then scrunch together with other pieces of foil to make a ball (about the size of a tennis ball) and pop in your home recycling container.

PRODUCT

BOTTLE TOPS

WHERE TO FIND IT

Found on many olive oil, vinegar and wine bottles.

HOW TO RECYCLE IT

Must be EMPTY!!
Then pop into your home recycling container.

PRODUCT

ALUMINIUM TUBES

WHERE TO FIND IT

Many cosmetics brands use aluminium tubes for their lotions and potions.   You’ll also find tomato puree and some toothpastes in aluminium tubes too!

HOW TO RECYCLE IT

Squeeze or roll the tube until it’s as empty as possible.
Then pop into your home recycling container.

Don’t be Foiled!

Many cheeky products, jealous of aluminium’s infinite recyclability, disguise themselves as aluminium… but don’t be foiled! Some of these products do contain foil but it’s bonded to other materials such as paper or plastic which means that it CAN’T be easily recycled in the UK at the moment. Please DO NOT recycle these products with your other foil packaging, they include:

Medicine blister packs,

Crisp packets  Baby and pet food pouches

Drinks pouches  Butter wraps

Some chocolate wrappers

Scrunch it!

The best way to tell if something is made from aluminium is to do the SCRUNCH TEST

Scrunch the item into a ball in the palm of your hand and then open your hand

If it stays scrunched in a ball it’s aluminium.

If it springs back it’s made from plastic.

ALUMINIUM FOIL TRAY RECYCLING MADE EASY

Recycling on the go

How is aluminium recycled?

Why Recycle?

Munch. Scrunch.
Recycle!

During Easter, lots of Easter eggs are given to family and friends to celebrate. And most are wrapped in recyclable aluminium foil!

 Some interesting Easter facts: 

● A huge 80 million Easter eggs are sold in the UK each year 

● Easter eggs make up 10% of annual chocolate spend in the U.K. 

● British people spend an average of £299 million on Easter egg chocolate every year. 

● We should be really proud as the first ever Easter egg was invented in the UK. It was made in Bristol in 1873 by Fry’s, the chocolate company 

● Over 500 million Cadbury’s Crème eggs are made in a year. If you piled them all on top of each other, they’d be ten times higher than Mount Everest! 

● It’s not all about eggs when it comes to Easter treats – Chocolate bunnies are a seasonal favourite, too. But how do you eat yours? According to a survey carried out by the National Confectioners Association, 76 per cent of people eat the ears first, while only 4 per cent start with the tail… 

● Remember to scrunch smaller pieces of foil together to make a larger ball of foil 

The Lonely Aerosol

We spray our way through 650 million aerosol cans each year – That’s roughly 27 in every household!

Meet ‘Pump up the Volume’ our glamorous friend who dreams of joining the party in the recycling bin.    Unfortunately for her, many aerosols never make it into the recycling and instead end up eternally loitering in landfill.   Here is where you come in . . with your help we can save these lonely aerosols and transform their futures by making sure that (once they’re EMPTY) we recycle each and every one of them – they could become a bike, a phone or even a pair of sunglasses.

Aerosols aren’t just found in your kitchen, they’re scattered all around your home, garage and even your shed.   Keep your eyes peeled for these infinitely recyclable heroes and once EMPTY, recycle them and send them on their way to a sparkling new future just like our glamorous friend!

LOCATION

Bedroom

PRODUCTS

Hair spray

Dry Shampoo

Styling Mousse

Asthma inhaler canisters

LOCATION

Bathroom

PRODUCTS

Deodorant

Shaving foam

Muscle sprays

Air freshener

LOCATION

Kitchen

PRODUCTS

Furniture polish

Carpet cleaner

Oven cleaner

Surface spray

LOCATION

Garage/Shed/Man Cave

PRODUCTS

Spray oils.

Spray paint

Insect sprays

The 1st rule of aerosol recycling:   THEY MUST BE EMPTY!

The 2nd rule of aerosol recycling: THEY MUST BE EMPTY!

The 3rd rule of aerosol recycling:  THEY MUST BE EMPT. . (you get the picture!)

How is aluminium recycled?

Recycling on the go

Why Recycle?

Where can I recycle?

Most UK Councils collect all of these materials for recycling through their kerbside collections or ‘bring banks’ sites often found on public or supermarket car parks. If you’re unsure please check your local councils website.

Alternatively, you can enter your postcode at the Recycle Now website to find out which materials you can recycle from home and where recycling banks are located in your area.

Some types of aluminium packaging such as coffee capsules are not collected by local authorities but recycling systems do exist. Nespresso have been running their coffee capsule recycling system successfully for ten years now. Find out how to get involved here.

How is Aluminium recycled?

When you pop a drink can, empty aerosol or a foil tray into your recycling box it embarks upon a magical journey of transformation.

The recycling process for aluminium is a very simple one, you consume and recycle, we remelt and reproduce that same metal into another valuable aluminium product, from aeroplanes to window frames or even rockets bound for Mars, here’s what happens . . .

READ MORE
1 Collection

Drink cans, foil trays and aerosols are collected from homes or local recycling banks mixed with other food and drink packaging. Some recycling schemes collect foil separately – check your local council’s website for details of how to recycle at home.

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2 Sorting

The recyclable materials are taken to a local materials recovery facility (MRF) where they are sorted. Metals are separated using magnets, and the aluminium and steel items are compressed into separate bales.

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3 Reprocessing

Bales of aluminium packaging are then taken to a reprocessing plant, where they go through four stages – shredding, decoating, melting, and casting. During the final stage, the molten aluminium is cast into large ingots weighing 27 tonnes each!

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4 Rolling

Ingots are transported to a rolling mill and rolled out to make sheet aluminium, from which new packaging can be made.

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5 CONVERTING

Aluminium sheet is converted into a diverse range of packaging items. Alternatively, your recycled aluminium can be used in the production of a wide range of items such as cars, bicycles or even planes.

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In the UK Novelis operates Europe’s only dedicated aluminium drink can recycling plant, where cans are reprocessed in a ‘closed loop’ to make metal used for the manufacture of more drink cans.

This plant has the capacity to recycle every aluminium drink can sold in the UK for the foreseeable future. You can see more of the can recycling process on the Think Cans website

Take a look at the journey of a drink can from consumption and recycling to refilling in just 60 days.   Filmed in partnership by our members Novelis, a leading producer of aluminium can sheet and the world’s largest recycler of aluminium and Ball Corporation a global leader in infinity recyclable aluminium packaging.   For more information check out the Novelis website.

Recycling
on the go

Recycling at home is simple, but what do you do when you’re at work or the gym?

Many workplaces, Universities and leisure centres offer recycling facilities but if yours doesn’t, get in touch with our friendly Every Can Counts team. They can help you to set-up a collection system for cans, find a collection partner to recycle them and provide you with a free collection boxes and promotional materials to get started.

It’s really simple and the best part is it’s free!

Every Can Counts is the European brand for drink can recycling and operates across 19 European countries.   The latest country to adopt the brand is Brazil!   Come and join us and make every can count.

Find out more here www.everycancounts.co.uk and make sure to follow them on twitter, instagram and facebook.

Fast Facts!

Did you know that every year the average UK household uses:

27 AEROSOLS
144 METRES OF HOUSEHOLD WRAPPING FOIL
182 FOIL TRAYS
380 DRINK CANS

DRINK CANS

  • The drink can is the WORLD’S MOST recycled packaging container.
  • 9.7 BILLION drink cans are sold in the UK each year, the largest market in Europe!
  • The empty drink can you recycle could be back on sale in just 60 DAYS.
  • The energy saved by recycling ONE aluminium can would power a TV for FOUR HOURS.

HOUSEHOLD FOIL

  • An estimated 15,000 TONNES of foil wrap are used each year in the UK.
  • Britain uses over 425,000 MILES of household foil every year – that’ll take you around the world 17 TIMES!
  • Annually, UK consumers buy enough foil to wrap over 29 MILLION CHICKENS.

AEROSOLS (source: BAMA)

  • 650 MILLION aerosols are used in the UK every year. Over half are used in ‘PERSONAL CARE’ products, e.g. deodorant, body sprays, hair and shaving products.

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