News in Brief

Veolia purchase Liverpool transfer station

The acquisition of the 2.5-acre Canada Docks site, which includes a waste transfer station, comes as Veolia attempts to further strengthen its position in the North West and follows hot-on-the-heels of Veolia's purchase of Bury-based paper processor C&C Recycling (see letsrecycle.com story).

Jean Dominique Mallet, CEO of Veolia Environmental Services UK, said: “This acquisition further increases our services to customers in the North West and means businesses in Merseyside will have access to a wider range of commercial recycling services. The location complements our other service centres in the area and means we will be well placed for business expansion.”

Oran awarded festival clean-up contract

Oran Waste UK is to help the organiser of Scottish music festival T in the Park to provide an environmentally friendly festival after being awarded the festival's waste management contract by event staff provider DC Site Services (DCSS).

For the event, the company, owned by Response Group, will be providing glass bottle banks, comingled skips and bins for plastic cups and bottles to ensure that all areas of the three-day festival have suitable facilities for waste collection and recycling. Oran will also have waste collection vehicles on site and will be heavily involved in the clean-up operation after the event.

Sharon McAllister, Oran Account Manager commented: “We are delighted to be providing a total waste management solution at this year's T in the Park festival.  With around 80,000 people attending each day, a carefully planned and comprehensive service solution was essential”.

Oswestry set for final rollouts

Veolia Environmental Services is set to roll out the final phase of an extended kerbside collection scheme this week in an attempt to boost Oswestry's recycling rate.

Veolia, the contractor for the Shropshire Waste Partnership, has delivered new recycling boxes and biodegradable starch based sacks for compostable waste to an additional 700 residents, which will enable more people to recycle paper, cans and glass together with garden waste and cardboard.

Donald Macphail, managing director of Veolia in Shropshire said: “The roll out of this service to the residents of Oswestry will make it much easier for people in the area to recycle more of their household waste which will be a great contribution to the target to increase the recycling rate in the County to 50% by 2012.”

Young designer revamps bins

Designs by a Lewisham schoolgirl have been used on recycling bins to encourage recycling at her school.

Millie Goslyn-Jones, 11, a pupil at Brockley's John Stainer Primary invented the ‘parcel' bin concept as part of a school design challenge to find new ways of making recycling bins more interesting. Her designs were then added to eight recycling bins at the school by Artmongers, a local artistic design company who produce artwork intended to improve the urban environment.

Millie said: “It's really exciting to see my design on the bins, I walk pass them every day to go school and all my friends think it's really cool and make the bins look much smarter than before.”

Cllr Susan Wise, Cabinet Member for Customer Service, said: “Well done to Millie for coming up with such a fun and exciting way to make recycling more interesting and noticeable.”

Paper supplier clamps down on waste paper

A waste paper recycling scheme across the whole of paper supplier James McNaughton Group has prevented 55 tonnes of office waste paper from going to landfill.

The company already collects 22 tonnes of customers' waste paper scheme and began their own scheme in 2007, which involved all offices supplied with dedicated waste paper recycling bins and regular collections by the nationwide paper supplier's logistics subsidiary, gm2 Logistics. The recovered paper is then taken to a central distribution centre before being delivered to two UK paper mills.

Howard Browning, director for corporate responsibility for McNaughton Group, said: “Whilst this is a great achievement and something that we are building on for 2008, we are also committed to reducing paper waste and reusing paper wherever possible.”