Exeter City's Cans4City recycling scheme has had its best ever season - raising a record £9,675 in 2025-26, the highest total since the initiative launched 21 years ago.
Cans4City is an important part of the club's ambitions to be as environmentally sustainable as possible. Revenue from the scheme supports local causes and the club’s operations, from benches made out of recycled plastic in our fan zones to upgrades for our grounds team anddonations to charity.
Over the 2025-26 season, volunteers collected and recycled more than half a million cans, equating to 6.8 tonnes, raising a total of £9,675.28. End to end this would stretch from London to Brussels, or the length of 2,600 football pitches and it would weigh the equivalent of 25-30 family cars!
The initiative’s overall total since it was established in 2005 is £34,024.84 generated by the collection of 34.92 tonnes of cans – that’s approximately 2.5 million cans!
Matt Hulland, Resource Recovery Manager at Exeter City Council, said “It is safe to say we have smashed any previous record. The collectors have done a great job, the commodity price has been in our favour throughout the year, ECFC board and staff have been accommodating as ever, and we’re delighted to have raised this incredible total.”
Club volunteer Andy Holloway said they were delighted with the total. He added: “The initial amount we received when we 'relaunched' the scheme in 2013 was £285 which we thought was a wonderful amount, now we get more than that a month!”
Cans4City is grateful to Exeter City Council for its commitment to provide the recycling routes for this scheme. This award-winning scheme is unique in English football and along with other schemes further highlights the Club and Supporters' Trust's commitment to innovation and environmental practices.
The collections, from May 2025-May 2026 have saved 525,000-600,000kWh of energy which would power an average home for 170-200 years or 70,000 homes for one day. Carbon saving is approximately 330 tonnes of CO2 and you would need to mine around 150-175 tonnes of Bauxite to create the 2.5m cans.
A huge thank you to everyone who has donated cans and to our incredible team of volunteers who run the Cans4City scheme.
You can support Cans4City by dropping off empty cans at the collecting point at St James Park. If you need support collecting cans, please contact the Club by emailing reception@ecfc.co.uk