MetalMatters campaigns boost recycling rates

(L-R): Gail Ormston, Promotions Officer at Palm Recycling with Rick Hindley, Executive Director at Alupro.

Metal recycling programme, MetalMatters, has found that its campaigns to increase the amount of metal packaging collected at the kerbside make a ‘long-term difference’ to local authority capture rates.

According to the programme – which is funded by metal packaging manufacturers, fillers and reprocessors and is delivered by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) – there are ‘sustained increases’ in volumes of metal packaging collected at the kerbside ‘long after’ the initial communications campaign intervention period.

The claim follows statistics that show that in two local authorities that ran MetalMatters campaigns in 2012, capture rates ‘rose steadily during 2013, providing lasting return on investment’.

Specifically, it notes that both Sefton Council and Aberdeenshire Council saw increased capture rates after introducing ‘targeted marketing communications activities to promote the “make you metals matter” message’.

MetalMatters says that 12 months after implementing the metal recycling campaign, Sefton Council collected 63 per cent of all metal packaging used from householders (16 per cent more than before the campaign), while Aberdeenshire Council saw an increase of 12 per cent.

Further, both councils recorded a return on investment in less than 10 months.

Figures ‘prove’ that campaign works

Speaking of the figures, Rick Hindley, Executive Director at Alupro, said: “These latest figures show that local authorities implementing the MetalMatters campaign can create a long-lasting change in peoples’ recycling behaviour.

“They prove that the significant investment and time that went into researching and developing the programme has paid off. Our local authority partners are experiencing such positive results in increasing their recycling rates and reducing their waste sent to landfill that they not only recover the campaign investment costs but also generate additional revenue streams that can be ploughed back into the communities they serve.”

Pam Walker, Principal Waste Management Officer at Aberdeenshire Council, added: “We are committed to driving up kerbside recycling rates, and when we launched the MetalMatters campaign last year we were very pleased to see the immediate positive effect it had on metal capture rates across the area [a rise of nine per cent].

“We have continued to use the campaign materials since then, and this has helped remind residents about the value of recycling their metals. What is even better is that these results have been sustained, and have improved further [rising by 12 per cent], showing that the messages have really hit home with people.”

In a review of all its 2012 campaigns, MetalMatters found that on average, councils saw a 20.9 per cent increase in the amount of metal packaging captured for recycling.

Find out more about MetalMatters.