News in brief

Scrap metal firm fined 16,000 for fires

The Chesterfield-based firm was sentenced at North East Derbyshire & Dales Magistrates last week (April 16) following an Environment Agency investigation.

Inspectors were alerted to the activity when the local fire service was called to the site on November 5 2012 to contain a large fire which took 90 minutes to bring under control.

The following day, the Environment Agency received a call from Chesterfield councils environmental health team, who reported that coach seats, rubber, metal and vinyl were being burned onsite. A subsequent visit by the Agency found another fire had been started in a 200-litre drum to burn paper and general waste.

Representing the company, firm director Richard Fletcher said in mitigation that the waste had been burned by staff who did not know that doing so was against the law.

But Fran Lowe, environment manager at the Environment Agency, said: We will not tolerate waste crime of this nature and will not hesitate to take enforcement action where necessary. It is pleasing to see that the courts mirror our view on the severity of this incident.

Grundon acquires Arundelle

Grundon Waste Management has acquired specialist industrial services and cleaning company Arundelle.

The acquisition, which was made for an undisclosed amount, will see Grundon expand its services into areas including decontamination, pollution control, site decommissioning and a spill response service.

In addition, five Arundelle employees will move from the firms current office in Wallingford, Oxfordshire to the nearby Grundon operation at Ewelme.

Clayton Sullivan-Webb, managing director of Grundon, said: Were delighted to welcome Arundelle into the Grundon family. This acquisition is the culmination of a long-standing relationship between our two companies and I believe it is the beginning of an exciting new growth period for our business.

Arundelle managing director David Green, who will join Grundon in a new role as industrial services manager, added: This move will ensure our existing customers receive an even better service and level of support and we look forward to forging new relationships as we move forward together under the Grundon name.

Hills retains MoD contract

Hills Waste Solutions has successfully retained its contract with Aspire Defence Services Ltd to manage waste collection and recycling services for the Ministry of Defence.

The three-year deal, which has an option to extend for an additional two years, sees Hills manage the estimated 4,500 tonnes of waste and recycling generated annually across four Army garrisons on Salisbury Plain and Aldershot.

The contract is part of a 35-year deal in which Aspire is supplying the total facilities management across the four sites the largest infrastructure PFI contract ever let by the MoD.
Since the start of the original contract in 2009, recycling rate has increased to 20.5% with a 14% reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfill. Under the new deal, which began on April 1, Hills will send all non-recyclable waste for recovery.

Gary McKinnon, commercial manager at Hills said: We are pleased to be awarded this contract especially as competition from other national operators was strong. This reflects on how HWS has progressed its service offering so that we are now able to provide ADSL and their customer the MoD a zero to landfill solution.

FCC appointed to collect Tata Steel waste

Tata Steel has appointed FCC Envrionment to collect and treat all waste streams from its South Yorkshire sites until early 2016.

The deal sees FCC roll out multiple recycling services across the sites whilst supporting Tata Steel to achieve the recycling targets highlighted in its corporate strategy.

Waste at the sites will be segregated at source of both hazardous and non-hazardous waste to help Tata Steel one of Europes largest steel manufacturers achieve zero waste to landfill.

Richard Jeffery, national sales manager at FCC Environment, said: At FCC Environment, we work with businesses and organisations of all sizes to promote waste as a resource. We strive to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by providing integrated solutions for environmental services, delivering savings and added value to all our customers.

We are delighted to be working with Tata Steel to offer a flexible and customer focused service.

MetalMatters recycling campaign spreads

MetalMatters has launched three campaign partnerships to increase recycling capture rates for metal packaging at the kerbside.

The communications programmes was rolled out in the London borough of Lewisham, Shropshire council and Glasgow city council, targeting 360,000 households in total.

Each of the recently launched campaigns will see leaflet drops to households and targeted marketing communications activities to promote the make your metals matter message, including panels on recycling vehicles, outdoor advertising and town centre roadshows.

The scheme received praise from environment secretary and North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson, who was on hand to officially launch the campaign in his home county.

He said: This is an excellent campaign to encourage households to recycle their metal packaging and one Im keen to support. Im looking forward to seeing some positive results from the people reached by all three of these campaigns.