Alupro, the aluminium recycling organisation, has launched the ‘Roadmap to increasing UK aerosol recycling’ - a strategic vision and initiative to improve the recycling of aerosols.
The roadmap identifies the key challenges which frequently prevent aerosols from being recycled, and proposes solutions to tackle each of these issues and maximise aerosol recycling rates.
With extensive consumer research, the roadmap highlights that there is still lots of confusion surrounding aerosol recycling - with only 52% of people reporting to feel very or somewhat confident about the how to dispose aerosols in their local area.
Alupro’s proposed solutions include improving recycling data quality, ensuring kerbside collections are consistent, investing in new pathways to treat non-empty containers, increasing consumer education through standardised labelling, and improving the overall design of aerosol containers to optimise the value in recycled materials.
Solutions for the future
Ecosurety assisted with the development of the roadmap as part of their work with the Aerosol Recycling Working Group - a group led by Alupro, with representatives from the British Aerosols Manufacturing Association (BAMA) and other industry experts.
Tom Giddings, executive director at Alupro commented “Launching our roadmap comes as part of The UK Aerosol Recycling Initiative’s continued work to improve consumer education, identify solutions to maximise recycling rates and secure long-term investment into further improving national recycling infrastructure. Our simple goal is to see aerosols become a central part of recycling behaviour in the waste management landscape of tomorrow.”
Gareth Morton, Ecosurety Discovery Manager and working group member said “Aerosol containers are another of those challenging household items that are, for a number of reasons, difficult to recycle. Hopefully this new report and roadmap will provide information and clarity about the future direction and actions the industry needs to take to increase recycling.”
Read Alupro’s ‘Roadmap to increasing UK aerosol recycling’:
Improving sustainability and awareness
Due to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations, producers will need to consider how to improve the recyclability of their metal aerosol cans to avoid higher fees and higher compliance costs.
Producers will also need to consider how to more clearly and widely publicise recycling options to consumers for aerosol containers to continue to be considered a sustainable packaging option.
