As part of the Ogni Lattina Vale (Every Can Counts) project, this summer the CIAL Consortium and Coca-Cola promoted numerous initiatives for the recovery of aluminium beverage cans consumed during and at major music events.
Record numbers for the joint initiative promoted during the summer of 2023 by CIAL-Consorzio Nazionale Imballaggi Alluminio (National Aluminium Packaging Consortium) and Coca-Cola as part of the international environmental awareness project ‘Every Can Counts’ (in Italy known as ‘Ogni Lattina Vale’), a project that to date involves 19 European countries plus Brazil.
Objective: to stimulate the collection and recycling of aluminium beverage cans in ‘on-the-go’ and out-of-home contexts. And so it was. Thanks to the collaboration between CIAL and Coca-Cola, no less than 330,000 cans were collected at no less than 25 major events that have characterised the musical programme in recent months in Milan (I-Days Milano Coca-Cola 2023, Coca-Cola Pizza Village, Milano Summer Festival), in Florence (Firenze Rocks) and during the concerts of the Pinguini Tattici Nucleari tour.
Music and sustainability – In the spaces and during the days of the individual events, about 40 young ambassadors of the project, equipped with special container rucksacks, took action to encourage the public to keep the event spaces clean and to recover the cans consumed by spectators.
The success of the initiative was also due to the cooperation with the operators of Alia Firenze and Amsa Milano (the companies that deal with urban waste management on a territorial level), with whom special agreements had been made in advance.
Space was also given to creativity. At the entrance to each concert, a colourful pop-up installation (made from over 2000 beverage cans, placed side by side) welcomed the public, giving everyone a symbolic welcome. There was also room for a great little quiz. A good eye and a bit of luck were the ideal allies in guessing the exact number of pressed cans contained in a bale placed in plain sight. Up for grabs was CIAL’s iconic Ricicletta® (city bike made from the equivalent of 800 beverage cans) which has now become a symbol of aluminium recycling.
On the beaches of Calabria – CIAL and Coca-Cola, together, have also been the protagonists of the Calabrian summer with a special collection of beverage cans that took place at 100 beach lidos in 18 municipalities in Calabria, all located in areas protected by the Region’s Marine Parks Authority, with which CIAL and Coca-Cola have been collaborating since 2021 on various projects related to sustainability and the protection of coastal areas. Every year, around 150,000 cans are recovered and recycled under the aegis of the ‘Ogni Lattina Vale’ project. An increase in separate waste collection, which in Calabria has been making great strides in recent years.
The recycling of beverage cans in Italy – ‘Ogni lattina vale’ (‘Every can counts’) was created with the intention of strengthening the separate collection of aluminium which, in Italy, is active in 85% of Italian municipalities, with the involvement of about 47 million citizens, and which represents a feather in the cap for our country since, according to the results of 2022, we recycled as much as 73.6% of the aluminium containers placed on the market. This percentage rises to 91.6% if we talk about beverage cans.
The efficiency and effectiveness of the Italian system of separate collection and recycling is evident if we consider that the recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans, precisely 91.6%, is not only in line with that of countries whose systems are based on deposit but is far higher than the average European recycling rate of 73%.