Artists Create Precious Metal Made from Used Aluminum Cans for UK Recycle Week

A spectacular 50m artwork made solely from used aluminum cans has been unveiled on top of the chalk cliffs of the Sussex coastline to mark the beginning of Recycle Week June 22-28.

Transforming thousands of used aluminum collected from around Great Britain into the world’s largest recycled artwork – dubbed Precious Metal - has taken a team of artists a week to complete and can only be fully viewed from the air.

The artwork - inspired by a classic 1949 summer poster from The Coca-Cola Company archives of a swimsuit-clad lady relaxing in the sun - is designed to inspire consumers to recycle more this summer through reminding them of the inherent value of empty cans and bottles.

Recycling aluminum is 20 times more energy-efficient than making it from scratch. At the end of Recycle Week each of the 200,000 cans will be recycled saving enough energy to keep a television running for seventy years.

Liz Lowe, Citizenship Manager at Coca-Cola Great Britain, said: “Old cans aren’t just waste, they’re precious metal.  They can live forever through recycling, to be used time and time again to make a whole number of new things saving huge amounts of energy and raw materials.

“With this simple message want to inspire people to think twice about binning their empty bottles and cans…an empty drinks can that you recycle today could be back on the shelf as a brand new one in just six weeks.”

Coca-Cola is working with WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) to install Recycle Zones around the UK to help make it easier for people to recycle their cans and bottles when they’re out and about – in places like shopping centers, theme parks, airports, university campuses and at outdoor events.  Launched a year ago, there are now 20 active Recycle Zones with another 60 on the way before 2011.  Already over 20 tonnes of recycled materials have been collected through Recycle Zones’ bins.

Coca-Cola has teamed up with WRAP’s Recycle Now campaign to encourage people to do a little more to recycle this week.

To pledge to do more go to www.cokezone.co.uk/recyclenow where you also have the chance to win a bespoke recycled sculpture from Robert Bradford, the lead artist behind this unique project.

Comments

[Derrick]

Nice job. This is a great way to spread the word about recycling and encourage people.