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Council expands kerbside recycling service

Aberdeen City Council has expanded its fortnightly black box kerbside recycling service to include empty aerosol cans and clean foil trays and kitchen foil.

The move is expected to prevent up to three million aerosol cans and 20 million foil containers ending up in local landfill every year. The materials can also be deposited at neighbourhood recycling points across the city.

City Council waste and recycling manager Peter Lawrence said: “The addition of this service to the kerbside recycling collection is great news for households who want to do more to help the environment. It answers calls from many local residents who were keen to increase the range of items they can recycle at the kerbside.

“The aluminium and steel used in these containers can be recycled endlessly without losing quality, so this is a really effective way for households to help reduce carbon emissions, save energy and ease the pressure on landfill sites.”

According to research conducted by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro), demand for local authorities to include aerosols and foil containers in their recycling collection services has never been higher.

Alupro executive director Rick Hindley said: “Metal food and drink cans are already a familiar sight in most household recycling boxes, but it’s great to see that Aberdeen City Council is collecting aerosols and foil trays too. People might not think that they use many of these materials, but in fact more than 580 million aerosol cans are used in the UK each year, and the average household gets through 182 foil trays, so it all adds up to a lot of valuable, recyclable metal. This scheme has huge potential to save local energy and resources.”

Residents planning to recycle these materials are asked to ensure that aerosol cans are empty before they are deposited for recycling. They should not be pierced, crushed or flattened and lids should be removed. Foil trays and kitchen foil should be rinsed before recycling.

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