Steel can recycling campaign at Coles supermarkets

During March, the Steel Can Recycling Council and Coles Supermarkets ran a promotional campaign to boost the levels of awareness among consumers of the recyclability of steel packaging.

The need for such a campaign was demonstrated by recent research undertaken by Roy Morgan for the Steel Can Recycling Council which found that Australians lack awareness about the recyclability of steel cans as compared to plastics, glass and paper.

According to the council, Australians currently recycle only 44% of the steel cans we use, despite the fact that it makes sense environmentally to recycle steel cans, since making steel from raw materials requires 75% more energy and recycling steel cans saves 1131 kg of iron ore, 633 kg of coal and 54 kg of limestone for every tonne of steel recycled.

The campaign was run under the banner of Coles Cares for the Environment and sponsored by Edgell, BlueScope Steel and SPC Ardmona. It involved using point-of-sale materials to remind shoppers in the 510 Coles Supermarkets across Australia to recycle their steel cans once they had used the contents.

The point-of-sale materials consisted of 'shelftalkers,' posters, register pennants, advertisements on checkout register screens and staff name badges. These were combined with radio ads broadcast in the stores and copy included in the Coles Catalogue distributed to 6 million people each week.

The Steel Can Recycling Council also gave away 50 Steel Can Food Hampers and councils around the country supported the campaign through shopping centre activities and local media campaigns.