Mid Devon District Council has teamed up with the metal packaging manufacturing industry and Recycle Devon to launch the ‘Make Your Metals Matter’ campaign to all its residents.

We use over 44 million cans, foil trays and aerosols every year in Mid Devon, the metal they are made from is endlessly recyclable and Mid Devon District Council is determined to make sure every last one makes it into your recycling container so that they can be transformed into something new.

To encourage metal recycling, Recycle Devon is giving five lucky Mid Devon residents who pledge to recycle the metal within their home a family ticket to one of Devon’s Top Attractions in 2021. To pledge simply visit recycledevon.org/metal-matters by Sunday 6, December for your chance to win.

The ‘Make Your Metals Matter’ campaign will include leaflets sent to 37,109 homes and will be supported with social media with the aim of reminding residents to recycle all the metal packaging found around their home, including:

• Food and drink cans
• Foil trays
• Empty aerosols
• Metal screw tops – from glass bottles and jars
• Household aluminium wrapping foil – used for baking or wrapping leftovers

If all of the metal packaging used in Mid Devon’s homes each year was collected for recycling it would save around 1191 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent to taking 253 cars off local streets for a year.

Used metal packaging can be recycled into new products at a far lower cost to the environment than making them from raw materials. Making drinks cans from recycled material saves up to 95% of the energy and greenhouse gas emissions needed to make both aluminium and steel from raw materials. What’s more, every time metal passes through the recycling loop the benefits are repeated, again and again and again!

Councillor Colin Slade, Cabinet Member for The Environment said:

“We want to encourage our residents to think about metal packaging found throughout their home, not just in the kitchen but in the bathroom, and bedroom. 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 recycling container can make a big difference. I would like to thank Mid Devon residents who are committed to recycling and reducing waste even in these difficult times.”

MetalMatters campaigns have run in over 107 local authority areas and reached over 6.5 million households since 2012. The Mid Devon campaign is being jointly funded by MetalMatters, an industry partnership comprising the UK’s leading producers, users and recyclers of metal packaging and Devon Authorities Recycling Partnership. 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 Mid Devon District Council 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 Mid Devon.”

For more information about what can be recycled at the kerbside please refer to our recycling guidance or our A to Z of waste.

Pictured from left to right: Councillor Colin Slade (Cabinet Member for the Environment), Paul Kirby (Refuse Supervisor), Darren Beer (Group Manager Street Scene and Open Spaces), David Penman (Refuse Supervisor).