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£917m Recycling Scheme announced for Lincolnshire

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:00:23 +0000

Lincolnshire County Council members will today be asked to back a £917m recycling scheme aimed at helping the county to meet new recycling targets over the next 28 years.

The plan includes building an ‘Energy from Waste’ unit - a combined heat and power plant to generate electricity for sale to the national grid and heat in the form of steam for sale locally.

A report prepared for the meeting said: “The new directive requires that the council significantly reduces the amount of biodegradable waste that it landfills, which means that the council must find an alternative solution.”

The report said the plant would take three years to build and would operate for 25 years, using waste that remained after recycling to create energy for sale. (more…)

New facilities to boost cardboard recycling

admin — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:43:11 +0000

With councils throughout the country offering different recycling services, many people have been left confused as to what types of food and drink packaging can and cannot be recycled. Many cartons for milk, drinks, soups and other liquids contain plastic and aluminium linings which make them more difficult to recycle. Most councils therefore do not collect these items with other kinds of paper and cardboard items.

Derby City Council has taken steps to boost cardboard recycling in the area by providing facilities throughout the region where people can take such items to be recycled. Carton banks have been located at Asda in Sinfin, Tesco in Mickleover and the Sainsbury’s at Kingsway Retail Park and The Wyvern. A bank has also been located at the Raynesway Recycling Centre.

Councillor Mike Carr said: “We have been recycling cardboard in Derby for some time, but I think the fact that lined cardboard cartons were not recyclable was frustrating and sometimes confused people.

“Now they can take these drinks cartons to the carton banks at five recycling sites and I would like to encourage people, when they visit these sites, to remember to take along their cardboard cartons from now on.”

Recycle Now launches Christmas Recycling Campaign

admin — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:08:21 +0000

Actress Joanna Lumley has today launched a nationwide recycling campaign to highlight the massive amount of extra waste generated during the festive season, and to encourage households to take action to recycle this waste.

The campaign is being run by Recycle Now, and will encourage householders to recycle their old Christmas trees, compost their vegetable peelings and drop off recyclables at supermarkets and recycling centres. Fridey Cordingley, head of Recycle Now, said:

“The amount of extra rubbish produced over Christmas is staggering but there are lots of different ways to help cut this down. (more…)

Defence firm expands into waste management

admin — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 20:50:23 +0000

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council has chosen the defence specialist company, VT Group, as its preferred bidder to design, build, finance and operate waste management and recycling facilities in the areas under its jurisdiction as part of a programme valued at more than £700m.

VT Group will begin construction of new facilities and infrastructure in 2009, and in the meantime will take over the existing facilities, where it is expected to benefit from initial revenues following financial close some time in 2008. The company will subsequently manage the waste recycling sites for a 25 year period.

Wakefield has already secured government Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding of £33 million for the project, which is valued at £700 million. (more…)

Waverley council England’s best recyclers

admin — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:35:24 +0000

Waverley council in Surrey has been recognised as the best council in England for promoting recycling and reducing the amount of household waste being sent to landfill. Waverley council, which covers Farnham, Godalming and Haslemere, was recognised by Defra for having the “largest decrease in total household waste per head”.

Councillor John Sandy of Waverley council said:

“In 2002 we were throwing away to landfill 44,000 tonnes [of rubbish], this year it has dropped to 26,000 tonnes, and this is a significant amount better than any other local authority.”

The council runs alternate weekly collections of household waste and recyclables, and aims to increase recycling rates across the borough to more than 30%. The council has put the success of its waste management and recycling down to its residents and the hard work of the council’s waste management team.

Livingstone concerned by Londons recycling efforts

admin — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:15:40 +0000

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has expressed concern about the municipal waste management performance of the city. Livingstone’s announcement from last week came in reaction to figures published by Defra that showed regional recycling rates ranged from 22% in London to up tp 35% in the East Midlands and South West.

Mr Livingstone said, “These latest Defra figures confirm once again that London is lagging behind the UK in waste management. Other parts of the country are improving their recycling rates at a faster rate while London continues to burn and bury its waste at an unacceptably high level.”

Several local authorities in London have been dissapointed by Mr Livingstones remarks. Mr Penny of Westminster Council, said: (more…)

England breaks the 30% barrier for household recycling

admin — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:43:12 +0000

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has today published figures which show that the proportion of household waste being recycled in England has broken the 30% barrier for the first time. The figures show that municipal waste being recycled or composted increased from 27.1 per cent in 2005/06 to 30.7 per cent in 2006/07.

The figures collected from local authorities also show that the overall amount of municipal waste collected has increased by 1.4% to 29.1 million tonnes. This is compared to 28.7 million tonnes in 2005/06.

(more…)

Nationwide food waste campaign underway

admin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:01:58 +0000

According to figures released by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), British households dispose of 6.7 million tonnes of food waste each year. To help reduce this figure, a national campaign to reduce food waste in the UK has been launched. The campaign carries the slogan “Love Food Hate Waste“.

WRAP Chief Executive, Dr Liz Goodwin, said:

“It is sad that so much food is being wasted needlessly…..At a cost of £8 billion a year, it’s a serious issue that not only impacts the environment but our pockets too”. (more…)

U-turn on household rubbish charges

admin — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:57:04 +0000

The controversial ‘pay as you throw’ tax is set to go ahead as originally planned. It had been thought that the plan had been dropped following last minute intervention from Downing Street. However there has once again been a u-turn and English councils will be allowed to pilot the ‘pay as you throw’ charges.

The UK could face fines of up to £180 million a year from the European Commission if it fails to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill sites. It is hoped that this new tax will help to encourage more households to reduce and recycle their waste, by providing up to £50 annual discount for those that do recycle, and charging an up to an extra £50 for those that do not recycle. (more…)

Pay as you throw tax is scrapped

admin — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:12:57 +0000

The long awaited announcement that councils would be allowed to impose a tax on households that do not recycle properly has been scrapped. The controversial plan for “pay as you throw” rubbish charges was expected to be unveiled by The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) later this week.

The proposals were shelved after a last-minute intervention from Gordon Brown, who was worried about the impact that a “pay as you throw” system would have on large families that produce large amounts of rubbish. There were also concerns about the practicality of imposing the taxes and the increased likelihood of fly-tipping. (more…)