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UK’s first nuclear recycling plant

admin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:19:29 +0000

The UK’s first nuclear recycling plant to be based outside an existing atomic facility is being built in Cumbria. The recycling plant is being built by Swedish-based company Studsvik at Lillyhall Industrial Estate near Workington. The site is due to be completed by December and will handle approximatley 3,000 tonnes of scrap metal a year from nuclear sites all over the UK.

After recycling the metal, low level nuclear waste will be taken to the nearby storage facility at Drigg. Studsvik say the operation will be completely safe and monitored on a regular basis.

A spokesman for Studsvik, which operates similar facilities in Sweden, said it would serve the UK’s nuclear industry, whose sites are now being decommissioned under the control of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

He said: “To meet the government’s decommissioning targets, new facilities need to be constructed to provide alternative methods for cleaning the materials that will be removed during the decommissioning process. (more…)

International meeting on hazardous waste begins

admin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:53:00 +0000

An international waste management meeting is being held in Bali, Indonesia to highlight the dangers of hazardous waste. The five-day meeting with ministers from nearly 170 countries will focus on the impact hazardous waste has on human health and livelihoods. They will also be considering setting up a new body on electronic and computer waste.

The conference was opened by Indonesian Environment Minister Rahmat Witoelar, who said that his country was particularly exposed to the illegal dumping of toxic waste.

“Due to its archipelagic nature, with the second longest coastal line in the world, Indonesia is vulnerable to illegal traffic of transboundary hazardous waste,” he said.

The meeting is organised under the UN Basel Convention, an international treaty regulating the global trade in hazardous waste with the aim of minimising its generation and movement across borders. (more…)

Workers lose fight for asbestos compensation

admin — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:50:10 +0000

A long-running battle by sufferers of an asbestos-related disease reached a climax yesterday, with the House of Lords ruling that sufferers of pleural plaques are not entitled to compensation. The decision removes an established right to compensation which had existed for 20 years, and could save insurers up to £1.4 billion.

Pleural plaques is a symptomless condition, but one which often leads to diseases such as asbestosis or mesothelioma. The decision has been attacked by trades union leaders, but Lord Justice Hoffmann said that in any claim of negligence proof of damage was an essential element. (more…)

Recycle mobile phones for Children in Need

admin — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:39:41 +0000

If you are one of the millions of people that have old mobile phones gathering dust in drawers, there has never been a better time to recycle them and help out a good cause. With Children In Need just around the corner, millions of households throughout the UK will receive Freepost envelopes over the coming weeks.

The campaign was launched on the BBC’s The One Show on Monday night, and will be run in partnership with Fonebak. For every reusable mobile phone that is receive, £5 will be donated to Children in Need. All other mobile phones received will be recycled to ensure that nothing goes to landfill sites.

Last year the scheme raised over £320,000 for Children in Need, and it is hoped that this year will be even more successful. If you would like to get involved, look out for the Freepost recycling envelopes with Pudsey on front, which will be inserted into local newspapers and magazines. Alternatively, visit the BBC website and order your Children in Need fundraising pack.

£1 Billion Mobile Phone Mountain

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:52:13 +0000

T-Mobile, the mobile phone service provider, has carrier out a study which suggests that the UK has a stockpile of old, unused mobile phones worth in excess of £1 billion. Although there are many recycling options available, the British public seam to be reluctant to part with their old mobile phones, instead choosing to hoard them away in draws and cupboards.

With regular mobile phone upgrades becoming increasingly common, it has been estimated that the average mobile phone user has at least one or two spare phones lying about gathering dust. This could amount to over 52 million old mobile phones. (more…)

Properties of Hazardous Waste

admin — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:13:24 +0000

As discussed in the article What is Hazardous Waste? there are a number of different properties that can make a substance capable of being hazardous. The list below details the different properties of hazardous waste.

H1 Explosive - Substances that are capable of exploding under the effect of flame or which are more sensitive to shocks or friction than dinitrobenzene.

H2 Oxidising - Substances exhibiting highly exothermic reactions when in contact with other substances, particularly flammable substances.

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Fluorescent Tubes In The Workplace

admin — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 15:36:40 +0000

Fluorescent tubes are likely to be found in the majority of office buildings, factories, schools and hospitals throughout the UK. Up until recently the majority of these will have ended up in general waste wheelie bins, skips and other containers. Fluorescent tubes are however classed as hazardous waste, and have been for several years now. The problem is many businesses simply are not made aware of this, unless they have been informed by their waste management contractor.

So why are fluorescent tubes hazardous?

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What is Hazardous Waste?

admin — Mon, 28 May 2007 11:18:35 +0000

Any type of waste which contains properties that could make it harmful to the environment or human health may be classed as hazardous waste. Defining hazardous waste however is not quite as simple as this. There are however a number of different properties that can make waste hazardous, and waste can be classed as hazardous whether the potential harm to the human health or the environment would occur straight away or over a duration of time.

Characteristics to look out for when trying to determine whether or not a particular type of waste may be classed as hazardous include irritant, flammable, infectious, toxic, harmful, carcinogenic, mutagenic, oxidising agents and ecotixic. Some examples of items that are classed as hazardous waste include the following:

asbestos
solvents
lead-acid batteries
pesticides
fluorescent tubes
fridges
televisions

To help determine whether or not a particular waste is hazardous, there are two main documents. The first of these is the European Waste Catalogue (EWC) which contains a list of all wastes, which are grouped according to industry and process. Each waste type has an individual six digit identification code and those which are hazardous are identified with an asterisk. The second document is the Technical Guidance Document WM2. The WM2 document provides guidance to help during the actual classification process.

There are two different categories of hazardous waste under the European Waste Catalogue - absolute entries and mirror entries.

Absolute Entries - Absolute entries are wastes that are always classed as hazardous waste, such as asbestos.

Mirror Entries - Mirror entries are wastes that may or may not be classed as hazardous depending on the concentration of hazardous elements within the waste.