News in brief

Planning granted for South Wales AD plant and MRF

The firm gained permission after an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, having originally had planning application for the facilities in Gelligaer, near Nelson, refused by Caerphilly county borough council in December 2011.

The AD facility will process 35,000 tonnes of food waste and agricultural by-products per year and generate up to 1.4MW of electricity enough to power roughly 3,000 homes for a year.

The firm has also been granted permanent planning permission for its materials recycling facility (MRF) on the same site, which has been operating under a series of temporary planning consents since 1993. The MRF will process up to 75,000 tonnes of waste wood, plastic, soil, metal and paper a year; and 15,000 tonnes of green waste.

The recycling facilities will operate in tandem with an existing in-vessel composting facility, a blue pennant sandstone quarry, and farm activities. Planning permission will safeguard 30 jobs at the facility and create six more, Bryn Quarry said.

Alun Price, Bryn Quarry Ltd director, said: Its been a drawn-out affair but were absolutely delighted with the Inspectors verdict. The beauty of our facility is that everything is done on site, a lot of other places need to send the waste off to be converted into a recyclable product, but doing it all in one place cuts our carbon footprint by drastically cutting the number of lorry journeys.

The Price family has owned and farmed at Gelliargwelt Farm since 1902 and in the mid-1980s began to diversify into quarrying and landfill and recycling. Since 2000 green waste has been brought to the site to be converted into compost and soil conditioner which is sold to clients including utility companies, landscape gardeners and the general public. It currently processes more than 80% of Caerphilly county borough councils recycling.

North London recycling rate must double

The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) has published the latest quarterly waste and recycling figures for the north London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest.

The data, from Wastedataflow for April to June 2012, show that 32.9% of north Londons household waste was recycled (which included waste sent for composting and reuse) up from 30.5% at the same time in 2012. Of the total amount of waste collected by the boroughs, 26.6% went to landfill, compared to 29.4% at the same time in 2012. The rest went for energy recovery.

However, North London councils have set targets to increase recycling to 50% of household waste or more by 2020, and for landfill to fall to 15% or less of the total in the same period. The Mayor of London has also set a target of zero waste to landfill by 2037.

As a result, councillor Clyde Loakes, chair of NLWA, said he was pleased with the progress but felt that there was a lot of work to be done. He said: If we are going to achieve our targets, north London residents will need to almost double the amount of waste currently recycled.

A recent poll conducted by Survation on behalf of the NLWA showed that almost half of residents thought the recycling rate was currently more than 30%, while a quarter thought the current rate was over 50%.

Councillor Loakes continued: It is apparent that people think they are recycling far more than they actually are. The key to achieving our targets is to ensure people know how much they are currently recycling, which gives them the basis from which to aim higher, what the targets are, and what they can do to help work towards them. Local councils and the NLWA are providing the recycling services; next we need everyone to truly recycle as much as they can.

Waste services broker wins five-year Virgin Atlantic deal

Stevenage-based waste services broker Waste Cost Reduction Services (WCRS) has won a 600,000 five-year contract with UK airline Virgin Atlantic Airways to deal with waste across seven sites including Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

Under the contract, WCRS and its partners will be responsible for recycling, hazardous waste and general waste generated on a day-to-day basis on the ground, as well as in property and aircraft refurbishments and clearances.

Virgin Atlantic generates over 740 tonnes of waste each year and has reduced its waste tonnages by 29% since 2008 while achieving a recycling and reuse rate of 68%.

Alex Mirkovic, commercial director, WCRS said: We are delighted to have won this contract and to be working with a worldwide company who places such importance on sustainability. We look forward to maintaining a long and fruitful partnership with Virgin Atlantic.

Luke Bolechala, senior buyer, Virgin Atlantic said: We chose WCRS as we liked their consultative and professional approach and we felt we could work with them from day one. We like the brokerage model, it gives us the flexibility we need to manage all our varied waste streams under one point of contact.

Palm Recycling wins paper bank contract

Cheshire-based Palm Recycling has won a five-year contract to manage and service East Cambridgeshire councils paper banks throughout the borough, with the possibility of a two-year extension.

The contract, which commenced on April 1 2013, will see Palm Recycling coordinate collections from more than 20 council bring-bank sites.

Palm Recycling will install 3.2m3 fully galvanised steel container banks at a range of sites throughout the East Cambridgeshire region, including supermarket car parks, schools and community locations.

Rachel Chadwick, operations regional manager, Palm Recycling, said: Bring Banks remain a popular form of recycling with the general public in fact we are seeing a year-on-year increase in the number of banks we manage throughout the UK. Palm Recycling has over 6,000 recycling banks nationwide and East Cambridgeshire council will benefit from our 25-plus years experience in managing bank schemes such as this one.

Palm Recycling currently works in partnership with over 100 local authorities within the UK, managing bring bank contracts.

Biffa helps boost recycling at Jewson

Timber and building materials firm Jewson has increased recycling by 260% and is diverting 40% of its waste from landfill with help from waste management firm Biffa.

In 2006, Biffa approached Jewson with a proposal to meet the companys waste management requirements through a new streamlined national service that has seen a reduction in landfill tax costs and recycling rebates.

According to Biffa, its team worked closely with Jewson head office and regional managers to design a staged process to bring waste management costs under control.

As well as recycling collections for inert, dry mixed, wood and gypsum being introduced over the last six years, Jewson is also now committed to divert all its waste from landfill by the end of 2014.

Rod Leigh, Jewson sustainability director, said: Before Biffa approached Jewson we had projected significant increase in our waste management costs. With Biffas help, the company is now making considerable savings and is recycling more and more each year.

He added: Our Biffa contract manager has achieved an enormous amount of success and has saved the company millions in waste management costs. With 95% of the work controlled in-house we really have ownership of our waste practices, and are proud to be recycling more than ever.