Can initiatives rise to the fore

Industry initiatives that serve to aid the environment and portray the can making sector in a positive light are becoming more and more commonplace, and are – of course – very much welcomed.

The latest example is The Great American Can RoundUp Industry Challenge, sponsored by the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI). Designed to promote awareness and the environmental benefits of recycling aluminium cans, the organisers recently revealed that this year, the aluminium can industry collected and recycled 178,000 pounds of beverage cans, raising more than $133,600 (£83,000) for local charities across the United States. Further details can be found in the corresponding story in this week’s newsletter.

Of course, local initiatives are popping up all around the globe too – each have slightly different agendas, but all serve to highlight the favourable qualities of beverage cans. One such example (recently featured in CanTech) is Cans for Pets, a campaign based in Western Pennsylvania that seeks to encourage the recycling of pet food cans; at the time we went to print, over 64,000 cans had been recycled in only the first ten months of the campaign’s existence.

Our news pages have been rife with projects such as these in the past months, and let’s just hope that the trend continues well into 2014 and beyond.

On a side note, it was refreshing to see aluminium’s beneficial properties receiving mainstream coverage over the weekend – this article on the BBC News page was ranked as one of the top three ‘most read’ stories of the day.

– Simon Rowley