We have all heard the messages to recycle paper and glass but what about the metal cans that contain everyday household favourites such as the humble baked bean?

Recycling guru Philippa Forrester is spearheading a campaign by Canned Food UK, the organisation that represents the canned food industry, to raise awareness of the importance of recycling metal food cans.

She says “All metal food cans are a 100% recyclable and the majority of these are made from steel. Recycling steel has major environmental benefits and is one of the most important things you can do to preserve our planet’s resources. Plus it is just so easy to do!

Every household uses on average 600 steel cans a year, if everyone recycled imagine the long term effect that would have on our planet.”

Philippa’s top tips for recycling steel cans:

• Simply rinse the can, put it in the box provided by our local council, and wait for them to come and collect it!
• Alternatively drop the cans at your local can bank
• For more information on your local can bank contact your local council’s recycling officer
   

Philippa’s reasons to recycle:

Metal food cans are 100% recyclable Metal food cans can be recycled over and over again without any loss of quality By recycling seven steel cans we can save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 26 hours The energy saved by recycling packaging steel in the UK would light Blackpool Tower for the next 1000 years The energy saved by the recycling of packaging steel in the UK is equivalent to that produced by over 600 1MW wind turbines The CO2 savings made by recycling packaging steel in the UK is equivalent to that produced by 240,000 cars The CO2 savings made by recycling packaging steel in the UK is equivalent to that produced by over 100,000 households in the same year Every tonne of steel packaging that is recycled saves 1.5 tonnes of iron ore,0.5 tonnes of coal, 40% of water required in production,75% of the energy needed to make steel from virgin material, 1.28 tonnes of solid waste, reduction of air emission by 86%, reduction of CO2 emissions by 80% and reduction of water pollution by 76%

For more information about recycling steel visit: www.scrib.org
For more information about recycling aluminium visit: www.alupro.org.uk