Our plan is to make sure consumers who use our products not only have a high-quality, beneficial and safe experience but also have a simple and effective way to place that aluminum back into the loop for recycling, instead of having it go straight to landfill. This poses some intriguing challenges for us in the coming years, and we have a number of strategies in place to meet them.
Think Cans Promotes Beverage Can Recycling
Novelis’ recycling programs in the UK, “Think Cans,” was started in 1990 with the objective of increasing can recycling. At that time, the used beverage can recycling rate was 2%. We started experimenting with curbside and buy-back programs in collaboration with municipalities.
Additionally, we developed a consumer education campaign, including a website launched in 2004 www.thinkcans.com. The site promotes learning about recycling at work, at home, at school and for charities, and attracts approximately 3,000 visitors each month.
The most recent beverage can recycling rate in the UK is now in excess of 54%2, which is a higher recycling rate than any other beverage packaging material in the UK.
For more information about how you can get involved with recycling in your respective region, go to Recycle with Novelis.
Working with Industry Associations
We have worked with some of our industry association colleagues as well as can makers in Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland and Hungary, to set up recycling infrastructure where there was very little. The objective was to ensure that as recycling facilities were developed, consumers were ready and willing to put their used beverage cans into the collection system.
The program’s success is illustrated by the rise in Poland’s recycling rate, from 2% in 1995 to 66% by 2009.
1 IAI/OEA, “Global Aluminum Recycling: A Cornerstone of Sustainable Development” (brochure), page 23.
2 Estimated for 2009.