WITH the recently announced rise in landfill tax and further imminent legislation requiring us all to "get the recycling habit," I thought your readers might be interested to learn a little more about the importance of recycling.

Recycling can bring enormous environmental savings in terms of energy and raw materials and hence preserve valuable natural resources for the future.

It is essential that we find alternatives to burying our rubbish, which threatens the countryside, and in the years ahead we will all be obliged to recycle more of our household waste.

Local authorities around the country are working to ensure that we are all provided with recycling schemes that are efficient and easy to use.

With packaging materials such as glass, paper and plastic, the reasons for recycling are fully understood. However, the recycling of metal cans is sometimes confused with fund raising which seeks to raise money for charitable causes.

This is obviously a worthy, but quite separate issue. The selection of metals for cans must be judged on its environmental credentials not its ability to raise cash for charities through recycling.

Steel cans are the lowest energy cans and producing steel for steel cans uses just half the energy needed to produce aluminium for an equivalent can. It is mainly this high energy content which allows the aluminium industry to pay 1p per can.

The steel cans' energy cost is much lower than 1p per can and some of those who call for aluminium on the basis of their 1p per can value perhaps do not have the environment as their first priority.

Steel cans are also 100 per cent recyclable and recycling is an integral part of the steelmaking process, with every can containing up to 25 per cent recycled metal.

If readers would like more information about steel cans or recycling they should phone the Steel Can Recycling Information Bureau on 0171 379 1306.

CHRIS PACKHAM, Environmentalist and BBC presenter, Steel Can Recycling Information Bureau, Monmouth Street, London.

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