Corus and Alutrade form partnership to promote recycling in West Midlands
06 Apr 2004
Corus Steel Packaging Recycling (CSPR) has joined forces with a leading West Midlands based aluminium recycling company, Alutrade, to help increase the volume of steel being recycled across the region.
Alutrade was set up in 1986 and operates a UK wide aluminium scrap recycling service from its 100,000 sq ft. state-of-the-art headquarters in Birmingham. With a large fleet of collection vehicles, the company collects scrap aluminium from numerous recycling schemes throughout the region.
Working with local authorities and can recycling schemes, Alutrade has now expanded its West Midlands collections to include steel cans. The cans are brought to the recycling centre to be processed, and are then transported to steelworks to be incorporated into new steel products. From these collections, an incredible 2-3 tonnes of steel cans are processed every day – the equivalent of 50,000 to 75,000 steel cans in every 24-hour period.
Chris George, Managing Director at Alutrade said: "We identified the potential to process an even greater volume of cans but felt we were being restricted by a lack of suitable equipment to sort and compress the steel cans. We decided to approach CSPR, Corus’ centre of technical and communications expertise on steel packaging recycling, to seek their advice."
Recognising which equipment would most benefit Alutrade, CSPR invested PRN revenue* to provide Alutrade with new baling and conveying equipment. This new equipment will enable Alutrade to quickly sort steel cans from other collected material and to create compact bundles of steel cans which are easier to handle than loose cans, enabling cost effective transportation.
Garvin Freeman, CSPR’s Recycling Development Representative for the West Midlands commented: "Alutrade and CSPR are perfect partners when it comes to metal recycling. Alutrade has focused for a number of years on aluminium recycling and our focus has been on steel, which is 100% recyclable, so it makes sense to work together to raise recycling volumes of both materials in the West Midlands.
"If Alutrade’s can recycling continues to progress at its current rate, there is the potential for 500 tonnes of steel cans to be processed at the centre every year – the equivalent of 125 million cans. It is great that CSPR can play a role in helping Alutrade reach this target."
ENDS
* Packaging chain companies are obliged to hold Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs), as evidence that their legal responsibility to recover and recycle has been fulfilled. PRNs are sold by UK reprocessors (i.e companies like Corus which can recycle). They can be sold either to an obligated company or to a Compliance Scheme Activity on their behalf. Income raised by CSPR from the sale of PRNs (Packaging Recovery Notes) is invested in initiatives, which enhance and develop the infrastructure for the collection of steel packaging from households and businesses across the UK.
For further information please contact Catherine Graham at Proteus Public Relations on 01295 279626 or email Catherine@proteuspr.co.uk
Notes to editors:
Corus Steel Packaging Recycling (CSPR) is Corus’ centre of technical and communications expertise on steel packaging recycling. It aims to facilitate and promote the recovery and recycling of all types of steel packaging in the UK. Its objectives are to provide an end market for the recovered material, to increase the recycling infrastructure through the strategic application of PRN revenue, to provide advice and technical information to public, private and not-for-profit organisations on recovery schemes and to raise environmental awareness among consumers and the commercial sector.
Most cans found in the home – often called "tins" - are actually made of steel. They include food cans, pet food cans, drinks cans, aerosols, paint cans, etc. They are easily recyclable and all contain around 25% recycled steel.
For further information, please visit www.cspr.co.uk.
