Some days, such are the complexities of the issues facing our sector, I feel that I could quite easily drown in jargon.
And rarely is that post-event ‘brain reset’ walk to the station needed more than at the end of a day discussing DRS, waste directives, the circular economy, LCAs, and recycling rates, to name just a few of our regular, topical subjects.
Which made me think; the most frequent and important sustainability feature we cite for metal is that it’s a Permanently Available Material.
Permanently Available Material is a bit jargonised but kind of makes sense if you think about it for a few seconds, doesn’t it? Permanent, always there. Available, you can access it. Material, well that’s not too difficult.
But who really thinks about such things for a few seconds? Other than us packaging people that is?
Perhaps instead we should make it easier for people, wave our hands in the air and shout much simpler slogans – “Metal never goes away”, “Metal lives forever” – much easier.
Thing is, while this might grab some attention, you still have to think about what’s being said. If it never goes away, where is it? And if it lives forever, where? And how?
What’s perhaps easier to grasp is that “80% of metal ever produced is still in use today”. That does at least conjure a picture of metal being recycled over and over again. And it does suggest versatility too: a can needn’t come back as a can, it could come back as something else completely in an eternal cycle of reincarnation. But that wording starts to take on spiritual overtones, and they won’t like that in Marketing. And it doesn’t slip off the tongue quite so readily either.
So let’s make it really simple – watch our animated video instead (below). It shows you all you need to know about being a Permanently Available Material. And it has a nice catchy tune too. You can whistle it on your way to the station.
Enjoy!
