Rexam wins US recycling challenge

Rexam took first place in a recycling challenge that saw the aluminium beverage can industry collect and recycle more than 235,100 pounds of cans.

As a result, the can industry raised more than $180,000 for charities. Rexam, Novelis and Ball Corporation took the top three spots in the industry-wide contest.

The Great American Can Roundup Industry Challenge is a nine-month competition that involved 87 facilities.

The Rexam North American beverage can headquarters office in Chicago won first place in the annual competition, with 70,775 pounds of used aluminium cans (874 per capita), followed by Novelis in LaGrange, Georgia, whose employees collected 3,517 pounds of cans (352 per capita). In third place was Ball Corporation’s plant in Findlay, Ohio, which collected and recycled 36,611 pounds of cans (101 per capita). Winners are selected from the highest per-capita collection rates based on the number of pounds of aluminium collected per employee at each site.

The Great American Can Roundup Industry Challenge included the plants and corporate offices of the three major American can manufacturers – Rexam, Ball Corporation, and Crown Holdings – and the two aluminium suppliers Alcoa and Novelis. Individual facilities partnered with schools and local organisations to collect and recycle used beverage cans. Proceeds from the effort will benefit local charities throughout the US.

“Our industry is proud of the can’s environmental benefits, which is why this industry contest provides an opportunity for can manufacturers to show they are environmental stewards, while also being able to give money to a local charities prior to the holiday season,” says Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) president Robert Budway. The CMI is a trade association that represents the can manufacturing industry and its suppliers in the US.