Metals firm shows can-do attitude to recycling

A WEST Midlands metal recycling business has cleaned up after receiving a contract to reprocess all the waste drinking cans from a major music festival.

Halesowen Metals is likely to recycle around 100,000 cans used by revellers at this year’s V Festival.

The cans were collected from Weston Park in Shropshire by on-site cleaning contractor Ryan’s Event Cleaning and waste management company Panda Recycling.

The task was made easier following an on-site promotion – Every Can Counts – which encouraged festival-goers to deposit their cans in special bins.

The segregated cans have been transferred to the Black Country plant where they are being reprocessed. The metal is then sent to the Novelis UK plant in Warrington where it is made into new cans.

This process, known as closed loop recycling, can see a used can being put back on a supermarket shelves within 60 days.

The carbon savings from this process are significant – recycling one tonne of aluminium saves around nine tonnes of Co2.

Andrew Jones, of Halesowen Metals, said: “Aluminium is a precious resource which we must recycle. It’s great to be working with the Every Can Counts team and Novelis. Just seeing the amount of cans from V and the big environmental savings that have been made – it makes us very proud.”

Amy Daly, from Every Can Counts, said her firm had collected cans from 10 UK festivals this year.

“This is all part of our drive to make it easier for people to recycle their drinks cans wherever they are,” she said.

“V Festival was the largest event we took part in. It was great fun and the recycling system worked really well, which was a credit to everyone involved in the process.”