Co-op, Alupro urge local authorities to recycle aluminium foil

Co-op has teamed up with the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) to encourage the recycling of aluminium over the Christmas period. Co-op and Alupro have urged all UK local authorities to accept aluminium foil for recycling along with food cans and glass bottles.

Michael Fletcher, Chief Commerical Officer at Co-op commented: “How we do business really matters. The world is experiencing a climate crisis and we need to work together to avoid it. Accelerating action is the only way to mitigate and reduce impacts on our natural world, and to ensure stable food supply chains in the future.

“We are committed in helping our members and customers to make environmentally friendly choices and reducing the environmental impact of products is and always has been at the core of Co-op. That’s why we are writing to local authorities to encourage them to collect such simple items as part of collections they already have in place.”

Co-op’s research shows 22% of adults do not recycle household aluminium and claims more than 3,000 tonnes of aluminium could end up in a landfill.

“We are delighted that Co-op is shining a light on the importance of recycling this valuable material.  So many festive food products are packaged in aluminium, and it is unthinkable that some of it may end up in the rubbish bin when it can be collected in kerbside recycling.  Aluminium is endlessly recyclable with no loss of quality, and most importantly, aluminium packaging placed in a recycling bin is recycled – it is real recycling in action,” said Rick Hindley, Executive Director of Alupro.