The Alcoa Foundation and Pennsylvania Resources Council's Cans for Pets recycling campaign has recycled more than 6,500 aluminum petfood cans during its first 10 weeks and raised money to aid homeless animals at a local shelter.
The Cans for Pets campaign was launched in November 2012 as a two-year effort to raise awareness and increase the total number of aluminum petfood cans recycled each year. The petfood can recycling campaign's organizers donated a check to the Animal Rescue League and Wildlife Center to support the shelter's efforts.
“The Cans for Pets program is a great motivator for citizens and businesses to get involved in an effort that will help thousands of animals and enrich the lives of new adopting families. This first donation of $325 will provide funding for the shelter to purchase more than 450 cans of petfood to feed the animals in our care,” said Animal Rescue League e xecutive director, Dan Rossi.
Alcoa says that currently, 20 percent of petfood cans are recycled compared to 65 percent for beverage cans.
“There’s no limit to how many times an aluminum petfood can may be recycled, which means that an aluminum petfood can that someone recycles today can be made into a new petfood can and be back on store shelves in as little as 60 days,” said Alcoa’s director of corporate communications, Kevin Lowery. “We see tremendous potential for recycling aluminum pet food cans and hope that rinsing and saving these containers soon becomes as routine as any other commitment to recycling .”
