Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council have joined forces with the metal industry and Zero Waste Scotland to boost recycling rates for metal packaging.

The local authorities are taking part in the Metal Matters campaign which is designed to support councils which offer a kerbside recycling collection by encouraging residents to make full use of their local service.

Drink cans, food tins, pet food tins, empty aerosols, aluminium foil, foil trays and sweet tins can all be discarded in the authorities’ kerbside black boxes.

The average household uses around 600 food and drink cans, 280 foil trays, 27 aerosols and dozens of metres of household foil every year. Although all these items can be recycled using the black box, statistics show that less than half are being recovered, meaning valuable materials are being lost to landfill. I admit to being guilty of throwing some of these items in the normal household bin, but not any more!

The eight week campaign will see leaflets sent to households across Aberdeenshire.

Chairman of Aberdeenshire Council’s Infrastructure Services Committee, Cllr Peter Argyle, said “Over the last few years, we’ve been making it easier for residents to recycle an increasing number of materials, and metal packaging is an important part of this stream.”