Aluminium Recycling Campaign in Norway Ends with Remarkable Results

In a national recycling campaign, school children across Norway have collected 11 million used tea light cups made of aluminium. The campaign has been started by WWF in collaboration with IKEA and Hydro and they invited first to fourth grade students from throughout the country to collect the largest number of aluminium tea light cups for recycling.

In October 2011, the Tea Light campaign was started and over 23,000 students have participated in this program. The program ended on March 31, 2012 and the results were quite remarkable.

Aluminium is a material which can be recycled repeatedly without changing its weight, strength, and formability. It is projected that 75% of all aluminium manufactured long back is still being used. Additionally, producing aluminium from used metal needs only 5% of the energy used to manufacture it for the first time.

Nina Jensen of WWF remarked that the campaign reveals a way to minimize carbon dioxide emissions and to reuse the resources. In addition, it helps to improve knowledge about natural resources and the environment and to understand the worth of aluminium as a recyclable source.

Before the campaign started, YouGov opinion researchers have conducted a nationwide survey, which revealed that 72% of the participants discarded used aluminium tea light cups. Every year approximately 200 million tea lights are sold in Norway.