Bath & North East Somerset Council have announced their involvement in an initiative to improve the national recycling rate of post-consumer aerosols. 

The project is being funded by Alupro through the Aerosol Recycling Initiative (UKARI) and facilitated by Suez recycling and recovery UK (SUEZ).

As part of a four-phase process, valuable kerbside waste composition data has been collected from households across the region. Capture, sorting and recycling volumes of aerosol containers were carefully measured and presented back as a material baseline.

Following completion, a targeted communications programme has been rolled-out with the specific aims of improving resident education and driving positive behavioural change.

Further sampling will be undertaken to measure the direct impact of proactive communications. Finally, an audit will be undertaken in six months’ time to better understand the activity’s long-term impact.

The data will be combined with insight from several other local authority trials, which all took place earlier this year. Alongside measuring the real-world impact of communications on consumer recycling behaviour, the programme aims to provide a representative picture of the UK’s residual waste composition.

Tom Giddings, executive director of Alupro, commented: “We’re delighted that Bath & North East Somerset Council is taking part in our initiative to understand collection volumes and examine the role of communications in driving positive change. Once complete, the project will help to inform national thinking when it comes to increasing aerosol recycling rates.

Tom Merry, Commercialisation & Innovations Manager at SUEZ recycling and recovery UK added: “In a post-DRS world, new targets set to be announced under EPR legislation will require 50% of aluminium packaging (excluding beverage cans) to be collected for recycling. It’s therefore imperative that we maximise the recycling rates of aerosols, through establishing a baseline recycling rate and improving public understanding. 

“We’re pleased to be working with Alupro to drive forward this initiative and aim to share best practice with the sector through our research findings.” 

Councillor Mark Elliott, Cabinet Member for Resources at Bath & North East Somerset Council, concluded: “We are really pleased to be one of four local authorities taking part in these trials. We have already achieved an outstanding 60% recycling rate in 2024/25 and partnering with Alupro and SUEZ on this initiative to give residents clear advice on how to recycle aerosols should help to increase the number of empty aerosols placed in household recycling green boxes.”

 For more information about UKARI, visit www.alupro.org.uk.