Environmental organization Planet Ark will begin its campaign during the National Recycling Week to inform the public about aerosol recycling following the publication of research showing that many Australians are ill-informed about the issue.
Planet Ark conducted a survey of 1,003 Australian residents this year on their recycling habits and found that 54 per cent believed wrongly that aerosol cans could not be recycled (in fact, aerosols are fully recyclable, just like any other type of metal packaging.
Twelve per cent said they didn’t know, while just 33 per cent said it was possible.
Planet Ark has teamed up with Unilever, the company behind popular deodorant brands such as Rexona, Dove and Lynx, to help raise awareness about safe recycling of aerosol products during National Recycling Week
Unilever is a signatory to the National Packaging Covenant and has in place an ambitious sustainability agenda to double the size of its business while reducing its environmental impact.
Among the company’s key focus areas is a target to halve the waste associated with the disposal of its products and make it easier for consumers to recycle.
Consumer aerosols have been safely and effectively recycled for several decades but people have been unaware or unsure, so the more information out there the better.
John Bigley, president of the Aerosol Association of Australia and managing director of Ardagh Australasia, has reportedly said that metal packaging world have been well aware for many years about the recyclability credentials of tinplate and aluminum as used in the production of aerosol cans.
However, it is extremely encouraging to see that in NRW aerosols are being exposed in such a positive way and the key is to improve peoples’ understanding about recycling.
However many observers have said that the campaign’s success could only be measured in people’s knowledge based on a follow-up survey rather than the improvement in the actual number of aerosols recycled.
Leave a Reply