With the help of Tree Aid, a Bristol-based charity committed to better forest management in west Africa, Alupro – a not-for-profit company funded by aluminium packaging and reprocessing companies that encourages recycling – is conducting a national Trees for Africa campaign. The idea is to counter deforestation caused by global warming by planting new trees and creating favourable micro-climates in which the forest can flourish again.
The campaign is also simultaneously boosting the amount of packaging the UK recycles each year. For every tonne of aluminium cans and foil collected in the UK for recycling, Alupro pays for a tree to be planted in Burkina Faso by Tree Aid in conjunction with a local conservation organisation. To date Alupro has signed up more than 300 local authorities and 2,000 schools to encourage people to recycle.
Alupro communications director Cherry Hamson says: "To make this a major national campaign, we need the support of packaging producers and retailers, and we'll be taking our promotional ideas to them."
