Wombles to promote national reuse day
The Wombles – which had their own television series from 1970 to the 1990s – famously “made good use of things they find” and the FRN hopes that attaching the name of the stop-motion characters to its Big Womble event will raise the organisation's profile and help raise funds to carry on its work. Activities for the day, which will be held at Wimbledon College on October 29, include a national raffle of celebrity household goods, an auction, and hopefully encourage local events to take place at the same time.
A spokesman for the FRN said: “We are hoping to attract significant support and make this a really successful event. The FRN will use the money it raises to support its social and anti-poverty work.”
Residents praise Northumberland HWRCs
Northumberland residents have awarded the county's recycling centres a 94% approval rating in a survey carried out by the council.
The research – carried out by the council's People Panel and an online questionnaire – showed that residents' approval of the 13 SITA UK managed sites had grown 4% from the 90% satisfaction rating achieved last year. In total 582 people participated with a response rate of 46% and noted six sites in the council (Allendale, Berwick, Haltwhistle, Kirkley Thorne, North Sunderland and Wooler) all deserved top marks of 100%, while most others were marked at 90% or above.
Paul Jones, head of waste at Northumberland county council, said: “This result may well move the county to top place nationally in this category of satisfaction by users of facilities provided by a local council. The recycling rate at these sites also reached an all time high last year of 61%, demonstrating that the public are keen to do their but for the environment if you provide them with accessible and high quality recycling services.”
Welsh report flytipping increase
The data was published in the Welsh Assembly Government's annual update on its Environment Strategy, which was published in 2006, and, in general, indicates positive progress towards waste-related goals, including an increase in the proportion of households recycling paper, glass, plastic or cans from 72.8% in 2005 to 87.3% in 2007.
Commenting in the report, Welsh minister for environment, sustainability and housing, Jane Davidson, said: “This report clearly shows that improvements are being made in priority areas of Welsh Assembly Government policy and delivery. But this report is also a reminder to us all that there is a lot more to do to improve our environment.”
Selby Freecycle Numbers Grow
In a move supported by Selby district council, record numbers of people are logging on to on-line reuse network Freecycle to swap unwanted goods.
The Selby Freecycle network gives people an opportunity to swap items they no longer need for items they would like, which Selby district council supports through directly linking to it off the district council's homepage. The council supports the scheme as part of the authority's commitment to give people more opportunities to re-use items rather than throw them away and has seen numbers of residents using the scheme grow, with 600 messages posted in June alone compared to 277 in the same month last year.
Cllr Chris Metcalfe, chair of Selby district council's environment board, said: “We're all feeling the pinch at the moment with higher fuel and food costs so this is a great way to save some money as well as the obvious environmental benefits.”
Corus helps boost steel packaging recycling
The Whitham Mills TCB steel baler provided by Corus will now help Bryson Recycling to securely bale its collected steel packaging and then transport it directly to Corus' CanRoute Centre in Northern Ireland before being transferred on to Corus' Aldwarke and Teesside sites in England. Bryson has been supplying the Oxfordshire company with steel packaging it collects from recycling routs for the past four years and the introduction of the baler means that it will now be able to process 1,800 tonnes of steel packaging each year.
Garvin Freeman, Commercial Manager of Corus Steel Packaging Recycling, comments: “By investing funds in new equipment to improve steel packaging processing facilities, Corus is making it easier for Bryson Recycling to reprocess the large volume of material it receives through its ever expanding recycling services.”
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