News in Brief

A new capital grant scheme for Scotland is to provide 2 million for new recycling and composting infrastructure by Scottish reprocessors.

Run on behalf of the Scottish Executive by the Waste and Resources Action Programme, the funding will be available through a competitive tender process in accordance with State Aid rules.

The scheme will consider a range of projects for the processing of organics, glass, paper, plastics, wood, aggregates, tyres, textiles, batteries or waste electrical and electronic equipment.

Grants will provide up to 50% of project costs, with facilities to be up and running by March 2006. Applicants must show that the proposed viability of the proposed project investment is dependent on the WRAP funding support.

Liz Goodwin, director of materials programmes at WRAP, said: “One of the key barriers to increasing the use of recycled materials in Scotland is the need to develop the infrastructure. The new capital grant scheme will tackle this.”

The Composting Association has awarded three local authorities for their composting and green waste collection schemes in its annual awards.

South Tyneside council won the Best Local Authority Initiative accolade for its “kerb-it” green waste collection scheme, which was recognised for providing collections for 48,000 households within areas of high deprivation.

Lancashire Waste Partnership was given the Partnership Award, recognising the successful relationship between different commercial, public and not-for-profit partners. The Association said the partnership had provided “holistic home, community and centralised composting services to the people of Lancashire.”

The Best Community Initiative was won by the East London Community Recycling Programme and the London Borough of Hackney. The initiative was recognised for kitchen waste and cardboard collection service at a high-rise estate in Hackney. The scheme has achieved an 84% participation rate and is soon to be expanded to 5,000 households.

Other awards were won by Eco Diagnostics in the Innovation in Composting Machinery and Technology category for its on-site plant pathogen testing device. And, the Jim Balance Marketing Award was won by Ecological Sciences Ltd for its “cross-sectoral localised marketing campaign for West Country Compost”.

A new recycling service for 30,000 households in Liverpool started today, funded by the Community Recycling and Economic Development (CRED) Programme.

Run by the city's own Energywise Recycling, the “Liverpool Recycle – South City” project includes kerbside collection services for glass, cans and newspapers. It will build on an existing two-year pilot service using blue bags to collect the materials.

The project will provide employment for at least 10 unemployed residents and has benefited from a 300,000 grant from the CRED programme, which is managed by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.

Annie Baker, director of Energywise Recycling, said: “The new kerbside recycling service will enable us to provide all of the residents with the recycling services they have been asking us for.”