Published on: February 11, 2011

Published by: admin

Students rewarded for recycling their empties at the Can Film Festival

Friday, February 11^th 2011 – The Can Film Festival, the recycling initiative developed by Every Can Counts working with the National Union of Students, is embarking on a second year of encouraging drinks can recycling at universities. The away from home recycling programme for drinks cans offers students an opportunity to watch films, for free, by simply bringing along empty beverage cans to be recycled.

The Can Film Festival is being promoted as part of the ‘Degrees Cooler’ programme which is funded by the Greener Living Fund and sponsored by Defra. Degrees Cooler aims to measurably increase the pro-environmental behaviour of staff and students across 20 universities inEngland. The Can Film Festival supports behavioural change by encouraging greater awareness of the sustainable benefits of increasing recycling rates of the drinks can.

Rick Hindley of Every Can Counts said: “Over eight billion drink cans are sold in theUKeach year, of which around 30% are consumed on-the-go. That’s equivalent to over 40,000 tonnes of aluminium and steel drinks cans, which might otherwise be lost to landfill. As students consume a large amount of canned drinks, it is important to make out-of-home recycling more convenient and accessible within university campuses. Working with Degrees Cooler on the Can Film Festival provides a simple and effective way to engage with a key audience and encourage long-term behavioural change.”

“Students are increasingly conscious of their environmental impact and are keen to do their bit to help move towards a greener lifestyle,” added Olivia Knight-Adams, Degrees Cooler Project Coordinator. “The Can Film Festival is a fun initiative with a serious message, and we hope events like this will make it easier for young people to be more sustainable.”

To date, there are over 4000 Every Can Counts collection points across theUK– in offices, shopping centres, hospitals, beaches and music festivals. Organisations working with Every Can Counts receive both practical assistance and marketing communications support, enabling them to improve their recycling performance.

Degrees Cooler is a programme funded by Defra’s Greener Living fund and managed by the National Union of Students.

For more information, visit: www.everycancounts.co.uk/canfilmfestival, www.degreescooler.org.uk  or become a fan at www.facebook.com

For images, further information or organise an interview with Every Can Counts, please contact: Clara Biu, onechocolate communications 0207 437 0227 or clarab@onechocolatecomms.co.uk

Notes to editor

About Every Can Counts

Every Can Counts is a partnership between the European and UK drinks can manufacturers, the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the aluminium and steel packaging and recycling industries.  It aims to enable and encourage more people to recycle the drinks cans they use outside the home.  For more information visit www.everycancounts.co.uk/about. You can also follow Every Can Counts on Facebook and Twitter

Every Can Counts – Funding Partners

1. BCME (Beverage Can Makers Europe) is a not-for-profit making association whose prime objective is to promote the beverage can inEurope. The three members are: Ball Packaging Europe, Crown Bevcan Europe andMiddle East and Rexam Beverage can Europe & Asia

2. The UK Canmakers represents theUK manufacturers of beer and carbonated soft drinks cans and promotes the benefits of the drinks can and aid communications between the industry and its customers: the brewers and soft drinks manufacturers and the retailers, as well as the packaging industry, the media and consumers

3. WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.

4. Novelis operates Europe’s only dedicated used aluminium can recycling plant inWarrington,Cheshire.  The plant has the capacity to recycle every aluminium can sold in theUK for the foreseeable future (currently 6.6 billion cans, which equates to approximately 101,000 tonnes in weight).

5. Tata Steel Packaging Recycling: TATA is the largest steel recycler in theUK. TATA Steel Packaging Recycling promotes steel packaging recycling to consumers, local authorities and the commercial sector

 About Degrees Cooler

• Degrees Cooler is a partnership project led by NUS in partnership with the following partners:
• People & Planet run an enhanced version of their Go Green campaign at all twenty universities. Going Greener is a bottom-up student-led campaign that seeks to help reduce the carbon footprints of university campuses from within by engaging staff and students. http://peopleandplanet.org/gogreen
• EAUC run a staff engagement project called Green Impact.. It enables staff to green their departments or teams through a practical accreditation scheme. Piloted at University of Bristol in 2008, the scheme led to measurably greener departments. www.eauc.org.uk and www.bristol.ac.uk/environment/green_impact
• Student Switch Off runs exciting inter-halls energy competition and campaign at 13 of the 20 universities. www.studentswitchoff.co.uk
• Studentforce are providing student or graduate placements to help deliver the schemes locally. www.studentforce.org.uk
• London Sustainability Exchange is coordinating the monitoring and evaluation for the project so we can asses how successful it is at each University. www.lsx.org.uk
• 20 universities: De Montfort University; London School of Economics and Political Science; London South Bank University; Bradford University; Manchester Metropolitan University; Roehampton University; The University of Manchester; University of Bath; University of Birmingham; University of Bristol; University of East Anglia; University of Exeter; University of Kent; University of Leicester; University of Liverpool; University of Reading; University of Sheffield; University of Warwick; University of Westminster; University of Worcester.
• 20 students’ unions: De Montfort University Students’ Union; London School of Economics & Political Science Students’ Union; London South Bank University Students’ Union; Bradford Students’ Union; Manchester Metropolitan Students’ Union; Roehampton Students’ Union; The Manchester College Students’ Union; University of Bath Students’ Union; University of Birmingham Guild of Students; University of Bristol Union; University of East Anglia Students’ Union; University of Exeter Students’ Guild; Kent Union; University of Leicester Students’ Union; Liverpool Guild of Students; Reading University Students’ Union; University of Sheffield Union of Students; University of Warwick Students’ Union; University of Westminster Students’ Union; Worcester Students’ Union.

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