Exeter City Council achieves £10k milestone recycling used aluminium cans

The Exeter City Football Club (ECFC) and Exeter City Council’s constructive recycling programme, Cans4City, has achieved a major goal of raising more than £10,000 in exchange for the used beverage cans turned in. 

The raised fund will be diverted towards drives and initiatives propagated by the football club and its allied charity house, the Exeter City Community Trust (ECCT).

Throughout recent years, the Cans4City team has successfully collected approximately 12.5 tonnes of aluminium packaging – equating to 700,000 cans in volume. This extensive drive has aided the refugee team of Exeter United with countless football kits, a mental health camp for the ECFC Academy, alongside the acquisition of a defibrillator for Cliff Hill training ground. The recycling drive has also been crucial for rejuvenating St James Park and its Memorial Garden while presenting its active participation in other auxiliary innovative measures. 

Established in 2005, Cans4City was initiated by Exeter City Football Club as an avenue for its fans and the intrigued community to help and make donations to the club occasionally. After its collaboration with Exeter City Council in 2019, all the introduced programmes by Cans4City flourished. 

Working hand in hand with the council’s waste management team, Cans4City, at this moment, oversees 20 aluminium recycling plants in Exeter and around Devon, like on many of the ECFC grounds, employing over 100 volunteers in the vicinity. The association also runs fundraisers in collaboration with community litter picks and beach clean-ups arranged across Devon and Cornwall.

The previous year, Cans4City promptly accepted the national recycling title or the Green Can Award from the non-profit organisation Every Can Counts in recognition of their extensive recycling programmes. 

The Chief Operating Officer at Exeter City Football Club, Justin Quick, exclaimed: “As a trust-run club, every pound counts and thanks to Cans4City, every can recycled goes towards funding improvements to the club’s facilities or to supporting local community groups and projects. Our next target is to hit 1 million recycled cans, and we’d love everyone to get involved – whether it’s one can or 500 – each really will help to make a difference.”

The Resource Recovery Manager for Exeter City Council, who was vital in propelling the initiative at the club, Matt Hulland, commented: “Cans4City has gone from strength to strength over the years and it’s fabulous to reach this milestone.”

The Exeter City Council’s Lead Councillor, Ruth Williams, who has complete purview on recycling and waste management drives, illustrated in his statement: “We’re very proud of the achievements of the club, trust, fans and collectors of cans. Not only does the collaboration of this kind create ownership, but it also encourages people to recycle rather than throw away a valuable resource we can’t afford to waste.”

The Programme Manager for Every Can Counts, Chris Latham-Warde, claimed: “Cans4City is an award-winning example of a start-up project working in partnership with its local council to deliver real benefits to not only the local community but the environment too. We hope other organisations around the country can get inspired by what Cans4City has achieved since its launch and follow in the footsteps of this great initiative.”

Every Can Counts is an innovative forum that registers beverage can manufacturers, can fillers and the broader recycling industry under one wing with the ultimate idea of achieving a 100% recycling rate for steel or aluminium cans. The initiative allows free recycling to beverage businesses around the UK.