St Helen’s Borough Council (Merseyside, UK) is launching a month-long campaign encouraging residents to recycle foil at the kerbside. The Foil me Once campaign, which rolls out in September, will be delivered in partnership with Alupro.  

Though a comprehensive schedule of radio advertising, social media content, website updates and media coverage, the initiative aims to increase awareness of best practice recycling and urges residents to carry out a ‘scrunch test’ to determine which packaging materials should be separated for collection at the kerbside.

Councillor Michael Gibson, Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste explained: “Not everything shiny is recyclable aluminium. Crisp packets, blister packs and food pouches may look like foil, but they can’t be recycled in your white bag.

“We’re therefore launching a month-long campaign on the radio, social media and in the press to improve knowledge around metal packaging recycling. Alongside hosting useful information on our website, we’ll be encouraging people to do the ‘scrunch test’, which is the perfect way to check if packaging is made from aluminium. Simply put, if you scrunch it up and it stays in a ball, it’s aluminium – if it opens out again, it’s plastic.

“By improving education and engaging with residents, we want to reduce the volume of material being unnecessarily sent to landfill and increase local recycling rates. We’re very excited to be working with Alupro on this campaign.”

Councillor Gibson also added: “Residents are doing a fantastic job with their recycling and supporting our kerbside sorted collections, which truly make a difference in both the quantity and quality of materials that can go on to be reused. This campaign highlights a few handy tips that are easy to remember and can help us to reduce our waste even further.”

Tom Giddings, Executive Director of Alupro, added: “Aluminium is an amazing material that can be recycled again and again. Unfortunately, not all aluminium produced in the UK makes its way to the recycling bin. Campaigns like Foil me Once are a great way to get that message out to residents.”

To find out more about Alupro’s foil recycling campaign, or its other educational initiatives, visit: alupro.org.uk.

Image: Alupro