29 days , 62 recycling ambassadors and over 100,000 drink cans collected for recycling… Our summer of events has officially come to an end for another year!
And this summer, we’ve helped festival goers across the UK and Ireland recycle over 100,000 cans – a 59% year on year increase – while spreading the word about the importance of recycling.
Festival Fun: Recycling on the Go
Outdoor events and festivals are synonymous with summer, and this year, we made sure that Every Can Counts was at the heart of the action. We partnered with several major events and festivals to help spread the recycling message far and wide. Here are some highlights from each event:
The International Recycling Tour: Bristol City Centre
Our summer kicked off with the fourth installation of our International Recycling Tour, where we brought a giant polar bear installation made of recycled aluminium cans to mark World Environment Day.
Alongside the PixelCan, our dedicated ambassadors were also at the promenade, embodying our mission to promote the recycling of drink cans consumed outside the home and inviting the public to recycle their empty cans on the go.
Click here to learn more about the PixelCan installation which appeared in Bristol.
Download Festival
We then headed to Donnington Park to spread the recycling message with one of our favourite crowds at Download Festival!
Our recycling ambassadors engaged with more than 2500 people, while festival-goers recycled over 30,000 cans in exchange for our #EveryCanCounts rewards, including our iconic ‘Metal Never Dies’ t-shirts and our Download keyrings made from recycled aluminium. And let’s not forget that thousands more cans were recycled in our voting bins and can-shaped backpacks!
The Red Bull Soapbox Race
We entered the #RedBullSoapboxRace to raise awareness about the importance of recycling drink cans… but we never imagined we’d end up on the podium! At this year’s Red Bull Soapbox Race in London, we placed third, beating 55 other teams with our aptly named Chitty Chitty Can Can to claim the bronze medal.
Our soapbox, our costumes and even our dance routine aimed to inspire people with the magic of can recycling, and we were blown away by the reception we received from the crowds at Ally Pally!
Click here to learn more about our journey to the podium at the soapbox race.
Stendhal Festival
Our team of recycling ambassadors returned to Stendhal Festival in Limavady, Northern Ireland. They brought their enthusiasm to the festival grounds as they interacted with attendees while carrying their iconic recycling backpacks and sparking meaningful conversations about the importance of recycling. We also brought our ‘I Heart Recycling’ can cages to the festival, providing a powerful visual reminder for everyone to responsibly recycle their empty cans.
2000trees
We returned to 2000Trees in July where everyone continued to show us their commitment to recycling by consistently filling our can cages throughout the festival! Over 12,000 cans were collected in our ‘I Heart Recycling’ cages and over 500 people took the time to stop and chat with our team of ambassadors who were roaming around the site to spread the Every Can Counts message.
Our recycling rewards were also a huge hit at 2000Trees, as many people rocked their recycling-themed temporary tattoos across the weekend.
Latitude Festival
Not only did we unveil a brand-new set of can cages, but we also brought our canny mascots to life at Latitude 2024! Adorned in over 300 drink cans, our canny mascots made quite the impression as they danced, hugged, and high-fived their way into everybody’s hearts!
An incredible 1500 people took part in our recycling questionnaire, with even more people getting into the recycling spirit and chatting to our team around the festival.
Putting the Fun into Recycling
At each event, our passionate team of recycling ambassadors collected drink cans using a variety of creative and innovative methods including:
- Recycling rewards—We gave festival-goers at Download, Latitude and Electric Picnic the opportunity to win a special edition t-shirt or a keyring made from recycled aluminium by bringing our recycling ambassadors a bag of cans ready to be recycled!
- Temporary tattoos – we offered recycling-themed tattoos to all the recycling superheroes at our events!
- Fun ways to recycle your empty drink cans – we gave people the opportunity to cast a vote for their favourite headliner by recycling their cans in our voting bins. We also brought our iconic ‘I Heart Recycling’ cages to the Soapbox Race, Stendhal and 2000Trees; while the Latitude crowd could recycle their cans in our brand new LATITUDE recycling cages!
- Our canny mascots – our recycling ambassadors took turns to wander around the site at the Red Bull Soapbox Race and Latitude in an iconic suit made from over 300 cans.
- Our motorised soapbox – maybe you saw our eye-catching half-can, half-plane aluminium soapbox driving around the campsite villages at Download and Latitude to spread the recycling message!
Our Recycling Questionnaire
In addition to recycling drink cans, the ambassadors also gathered over 6,700 responses for Every Can Counts’ recycling survey, with the results revealing that festival goers would recycle more when they’re away from home if there were more recycling points.
Beaches and green spaces, streets, and shopping centres were named the top locations where people feel more drink can recycling points are needed.
Chris Latham-Warde, Programme Manager at Every Can Counts, said: “It’s been a fantastic summer working with major festivals and event organisers across the UK and Ireland, as well as our drink brand partners, to raise awareness about the importance of recycling.
“Thanks to the enthusiasm of festival goers and our dedicated team of ambassadors, we’ve not only recycled over 100,000 cans across the UK, but also hopefully inspired thousands to make recycling a part of their daily lives.
“Every can that is recycled can be back on the shelf in 60 days and if we work together, we can all enjoy greener festivals while getting closer to our goal of a 100% drink can recycling rate.”
Looking Ahead: Help Us To Keep The Cycle Going
If you came across the Every Can Counts team this summer and are now feeling inspired to make a difference, here’s a reminder of a few things you can do to make your empty cans count:
- Recycle your drink cans while you’re out and about. If there is no recycling bin around, hold on to your cans until you find one, or take them home and recycle them there.
- If you’re camping or picnicking in the great outdoors, bring some bags with you to separate your recycling from your general waste.
- If you work or volunteer at an organisation without drink can recycling facilities, we can help you do something about it! Request a free Every Can Counts starter pack here to set up a can collection point.
- Help us spread the Every Can Counts message! Remember that aluminium recycles forever, and drink cans have the potential to go around the recycling loop in just 60 days. Help us get the word out there to those who don’t know and encourage everyone to recycle their cans on-the-go!
But the fun doesn’t stop here! We have plenty of exciting things planned for the coming months, with more events and initiatives in the pipeline. Together, we can continue to make a difference and make sure that every can really does count.
Thank you to everyone who joined us this summer!
