Joint recycling campaign avoids landfill

Metal packaging supplier Impress and customer Crown Paints Ltd are working together in a bring-back scheme, to support the UK Trade Decorator request, to recycle used paint cans. They hope to raise consumer awareness and avoid recyclable packaging ending up in landfill sites.

Crown Paints Ltd has a bring-back scheme currently underway within UK Crown Trade Decorator Centres and has approached Impress to become a partner. Together they will raise awareness that all used metal paint cans are recyclable. "The scheme allows trade customers to return used Crown Paint cans to stores, when they purchase a new one," comments Brian Widdop, Technical Director Crown Paints Ltd. "This is our way of encouraging customers to avoid throwing paint cans into landfill. The metal cans we buy from one of our key suppliers, Impress, are 100% recyclable and in partnership we can benefit from their recycling infrastructure and have a closed loop process in place."                                                             

Impress Norwich, UK market leader in metal paint can manufacturing, is keen to find business partners to help promote the environmental strengths of metal packaging.                                                                                     
   
Matt Sykes, Impress UK Sales Manager is very enthusiastic about the Crown Paints' bring-back scheme and says, "Impress already recovers and recycles all pre-consumer metal scrap, therefore, extending this to post-consumer is relatively straight-forward. The global steel mills are the end-user of recycled metal and can accept used metal paint cans into the recycling process to make new steel, without any problems."
 
Impress is also working closely with UK Government and Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to raise consumer awareness about paint can recycling. "We are hoping for a positive response, which will result in thousands of tonnes of used metal paint cans being diverted from landfill into the recycling infrastructure" says Sykes. Until then, Impress is focussing attention on helping Crown Paints with their own recycling scheme, which should provide the opportunity to redirect up to 400 tonnes of used metal paint cans away from landfill and into recycling. Some may again become new Crown paint cans!

Impress is a global market leader in the consumer metal packaging industry. Worldwide leader in the Seafood can market, European and Australasian leader for Aerosol cans, European leader in cans for Paints and Coatings, European leader in cans for Infant Formula and Nutritional Powders and the second largest supplier of heat processed Food cans in Europe and Australasia. Based in Deventer, the Netherlands, Impress has approximately 8,000 employees in 56 facilities in 21 countries in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, The Seychelles and Morocco. Worldwide sales in 2008 were approximately €1.75 billion.

Discover Impress at:  www.impressgroup.com 

For further Information please contact:

Matt Sykes, Impress Norwich: Tel +44 (0 )1603 427313  Fax: +44(0)1603 789913 e-mail: Matt.sykes@uk.imp-group.com
Blanche Frankel, Press'Publica: Tel: +33 (1) 56 89 56 64; Fax: +33 56 89 56 50;   e-mail:  b.frankel@press-publica.fr
Mary Chapman, Mary Chapman Communications: Tel: +44 (0) 1452 720208 Fax: +44 (0) 1452 723724 e-mail: marychpm@aol.com