Every Can Counts, the non-profit organisation working to raise awareness about the importance of aluminium can recycling, has been working at festivals across the UK and Ireland by helping attendees recycle over 100,000 aluminium cans. This represented a year on year increase of 59 per cent while raising awareness about the importance of recycling.
Throughout the festival season, 62 ambassadors from the organisation participated festivals, including the Download, the Red Bull Soapbox Race, the Stendhal Festival, 2000 Trees, and Latitude. At each event, the team employed creative methods to collect aluminium cans, such as custom-designed recycling backpacks, striking cage installations, and festival-themed voting bins.
Ambassadors at Download, Latitude and Electric Picnic rewarded festival-goers for recycling their drink cans to boost engagement. Attendees could trade sacks of empty cans for festival-branded t-shirts or keyrings made from recycled aluminium. Beyond collecting cans, the ambassadors gathered over 6,700 responses for the Every Can Counts recycling survey.
Chris Latham-Warde, Programme Manager at Every Can Counts, commented, “It’s been a fantastic summer working with major festivals and event organisers across the UK and Ireland, as well as our drink brand partners, to raise awareness about the importance of recycling. Thanks to the enthusiasm of festival goers and our dedicated team of ambassadors, we’ve not only recycled over 100,000 cans across the UK, but also hopefully inspired thousands to make recycling a part of their daily lives. Every can that is recycled can be back on the shelf in 60 days and if we work together, we can all enjoy greener festivals while getting closer to our goal of a 100% drink can recycling rate.”
The survey results showed that people would recycle more while away from home if additional recycling points were available. Beaches, green spaces, streets, and shopping centres were identified as the top spots for more drink can recycling facilities.
