Pendle News Room

And Nadeem has been out on the recycling rounds, seeing for himself how much foil is  being recycled in Pendle’s brown recycling bins.
 
Each year, every household in the UK uses around 182 foil trays and 144 metres of wrapping foil. 

And an estimated 16,000 tonnes of foil containers are used each year for packaging products like ready meals, pies and quiches and take aways.

And yet about a quarter of residents put aluminium foil into their general waste bin, even though local councils like Pendle Borough Council collect it for recycling.

Pendle Borough Council is one of two pioneering councils in the North West to team up with Alupro, a not-for-profit organisation representing UK’s aluminium packaging industry. 
 
Alupro is funding the campaign, including digital screen advertising and mobile phone messages direct to Pendle people to get the vital message across.
“The great thing about aluminium is that it’s infinitely recyclable.
 
 “You can melt it down and reform it to create new products or packaging materials time and time again,” Alupro’s Executive Director, Tom Giddings, explained.
 
Messages featured on the bin wagons include that if you can scrunch your foil you can recycle it in your brown bin, including foil chocolate wrappers.

And people are being asked to simply rinse their empty foil containers and make sure there are no large pieces of food stuck to the sides before putting them into their brown bin.
 
 The used foil does not have to be perfectly clean!
 
For more details about foil recycling visit www.pendle.gov.uk/foil
 
David Walker, the Council’s Environmental Services Manager said:

“Our aim is to boost foil recycling to reduce the high cost and carbon emissions involved in making it from scratch.
 
“We do not want people to waste foil and the cost of it going to landfill is high - with Landfill Tax costing £98 per tonne.”