Everyone likes a celebration – whether it’s a birthday, Christmas or New Year, the end of the school year or welcoming a new member to the family. Celebrations mean presents, and presents often mean lots of packaging!

Special occasions can mean we have different things to dispose of than we might usually have.

For example, at Christmas you can recycle your mince pie cases… and the foil tray from the turkey too! Just make sure anything that looks like aluminium foil passes the scrunch test. Scrunch it up, and if it stays in a ball then it’s aluminium – which means it can be recycled!

However, some materials can LOOK like aluminium but are actually plastic – or aluminium coated with a plastic. These items can’t be recycled at home – so do the scrunch test and check the labelling to find out how best to dispose of them.

At Christmas, the UK eats it way through over 378 million mince pies – and uses around 3,000 tonnes of aluminium to create those tiny pie cases! That’s not to mention the roasting trays, aluminium bottle tops, drink cans, chocolate foil and whipped cream cans we consume.

But the good news is aluminium and other metals can be recycled endlessly, without losing quality. It can take as little as 60 days for a drink can to be recycled, and back on the supermarket shelf as a new can. Now that IS something worth celebrating!

Whatever the occasion, remember to do the scrunch test to see if foil-like packaging is aluminium? Clean or wipe it first if needed, then squeeze it in your hand and if it stays in a ball, it can go in your recycling bin!

Click here for some amazing free aluminium education resources!

Remember to always recycle your aluminium – whether a drink can or foil tray, foil wrapping or bottle cap – always put your aluminium into your recycling. After all, aluminium is infinitely recyclable.