What to do with
Food tins & drink cans
How to recycle metal packaging such as cans, tins and foil
Metal packaging is widely recycled. To check which items you can recycle at home or to find out where your nearest recycling facilities are, use our handy Recycling Locator tool.
What items can I recycle?
| Yes please | No thanks |
|---|---|
| Drink cans | Laminated foil, e.g. cat food/coffee pouches that spring back when you try and scrunch them |
| Food tins (put tin lids inside the tin) | Crisp packets and sweet wrappers |
| Biscuit/chocolate tins and their lids | Metal containers for chemicals, i.e. white spirits, paints or engine oils |
| Aerosols (remove plastic caps and recycle with plastics) | General kitchen ware, e.g. cutlery, pots and pans |
| Aluminium foil, e.g. for baking, covering food - scrunch foil together to form a ball | Any other metal items, e.g. kettles, irons, pipes, white goods |
| Aluminium foil trays, e.g. take-away trays | |
| Aluminium tubes, e.g. tomato puree - remove plastic caps |
- Empty and rinse items - left over foods or liquids can contaminate other recyclables.
- You can leave labels on - these are removed in the recycling process.
- Metal lids and caps on glass containers, e.g. metal jam jar lids, can be left on to recycle with glass. These are different types of metal to cans/tins/aerosols and are recycled in a different way. By putting the lids/caps back on glass jars and bottles it reduces the chance of them getting lost through the sorting process.
- The plastic ring joiners that come with multi-packs of drinks cans can be recycled together with plastic film and carrier bags at collection points of larger supermarkets.
Tips for recycling metal packaging
Every Can Counts
To help us recycle our drinks cans wherever we are - whether at work, at college, at an event or festival or simply out and about - the Every Can Counts campaign is working hard with a range of organisations to provide drinks can recycling facilities.
Did you know that one in every three drinks cans sold in the UK are drunk away from home? The metal these cans are made from is endlessly recyclable, so it’s important that it is saved rather than thrown away. Especially when you consider that each can could be recycled and be back on sale as another can – in just 60 days.
Find out what you can recycle at home