Britons believe the UK government should take action to encourage more collected used aluminium packaging to be made available for companies supplying the UK market. 

A poll published revealed some 58 percent are concerned the UK is losing too much aluminium as a critical resource essential for growing the economy.

The poll was commissioned by Alupro and was conducted by polling company Yonder. Yonder surveyed some 2,000 adults as part of a representative sample.

Some 86 percent of those surveyed in Northern Ireland said they were in favour of government action, compared to 81 percent in Wales and 75 percent in Scotland. In England, support for action was highest in the Eastern and South-West regions where some 82 percent of respondents said Whitehall should encourage more secondary aluminium to be available for companies supplying the UK market.

Aluminium is considered a critical and strategic material for the UK. The wider aluminium industry supports the employment of some 108,000 full-time jobs across the UK and the contribution of £9.4 billion to the UK economy.  

Aluminium packaging, including drink cans and aerosols, contribute to the circular economy and can be recycled again and again without losing quality. 

Today the world is facing growing trade tensions, especially with US tariffs and major government subsidies in Asia affecting global prices. 

This is creating an uneven playing field and making it more costly for UK-based recycling businesses buying waste material for the purposes of recycling it into valuable products for the UK economy to compete for UK raw material.  That’s why so much more material is now leaving instead of being recycled locally. 

And in turn this may compromise the return on investment for Britain which has funded a raft of domestic environmental policies such as simpler recycling and deposit return schemes. 

The European Union has already taken action to prevent the shipping of secondary aluminium outside of Europe. But currently the UK government has not.
Alupro Executive Director Tom Giddings said: “This poll shows that Britons believe it is very important for the UK to make the most of its resources. 

“Whilst some types of aluminium scrap require additional processing that we currently don’t do in the UK or Europe, for packaging this isn’t true. We have a fantastic industrial recycling capacity as well as huge demand for packaging produced from secondary material.”

“Aluminium is of huge strategic importance to the UK economy, and it’s vital that the UK government takes action to encourage more aluminium scrap to be available for companies supplying the UK market.

“In particular, the DRS for drinks containers could supercharge UK aluminium recycling by further boosting drinks can recycling rates; we must ensure these collected cans find their way back into the regional circular economy to make the most of this fantastic opportunity.

“I look forward to working with industry and Government to make the change we want to see a reality.”