PACKAGING COUNCIL (SECRETARIAT)

Steel Sector

Packaging Materials: Steel

Most New Zealanders use at least one steel can each day and last year recycled 47% of all cans consumed. This represents a decrease over the previous year albeit still ahead of the five year target under the Packaging Accord.

It is believed that the decrease in the recovery tonnage is attributed to double counting of recovered scrap in previous years and reflects improvements in reporting systems over time and the considerable efforts made by the Accord parties to verify the accuracy of the data.

The drop in consumption is attributed to the major marketers shifting from 0.19 to 0.16 plate. The full impact of this will be reflected in the Year 5 report.

Steel cans are 100% recyclable and at current scrap metal rates, the recovered steel is a valuable commodity on the world market and prices have surged during the past year creating demand for the recovered material.

97% of New Zealand’s 1.5 million households have access to steel can recycling. However an informal survey by CANZBAC of council waste management departments found that around one quarter of New Zealand local councils do not recycle aerosol cans. 27 million aerosol cans are consumed each year but many empty household aerosols are being sent to landfill although they can be safely recycled – and have been collected overseas for decades. Aerosol cans account for about 4% of metal packaging systems with about 65% of aerosols made from steel and the rest from aluminium. New Zealand was one of the first countries in the Southern hemisphere to start manufacturing aerosols in the early 1950's but we have been slow to accept them into recycling collections.

The steel can sector has continued to educate New Zealanders about the importance and the ease of recycling all steel cans via its CANZBAC™ campaign, which is funded by Impress Australasia, NCI Packaging and the Aerosol Association of New Zealand.

In 2007 the campaign was extended to children, with the development of a dedicated section of the website with activities for children, colouring competitions in a wide range of community media and a “Monster Building” competition for Auckland schools. After being successfully piloted with Auckland region primary schools it is planned that the competition will be introduced in the Wellington region in 2008.

The cartoon character Hanable the CAN-able conveys the recycling message to children and is used on various collateral such as the prizes offered to children in the  colouring and ‘monster building’ competitions.A “Peoples’ Choice” prize which is voted for on the CANZBAC website, generates traffic to the site from schools, parents and supporters. The project was highly commended in the Packaging Council’s Environmental Packaging Awards..

This has been supported by media campaigns reminding people to recycle on celebration days such as Father’s Day and Christmas. The steel can recycling message is included on Food in a Minute shows that use canned food and all online recipes and recipe pamphlets which feature meals using steel cans display a recyclable steel logo.

A quarterly e-newsletter is sent to 300 recipients including brand owners, council waste departments and other stakeholders CANZCHAT covers innovation in can design, council recycling developments and educational ideas to promote recycling.

Recycling steel cans saves virgin materials and uses 75% less energy and around half the water.

PACKAGING COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND
ACTING AS THE NZ PACKAGING ACCORD SECRETARIAT
77 Greenmount Drive, East Tamaki, Manukau
PO Box 58899, Greenmount, Auckland
PHONE: 09 271 4044, FAX: 09 271 4041