Rhondda spends £1.6m on new collection vehicles
The food waste service has now been offered to 20,000 households throughout the county borough, and the council received Welsh Assembly Government funding to help purchase eight £160,000 lorries with separate compartments for residual waste and food waste to be recycled. It claims this will improve collection efficiency as the vehicles can collect food waste at the same time as residual waste. The council has also purchased two new Dennis Eagle lorries, costing £160,000 each, to collect trade waste from businesses throughout Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Councillor Anthony Christopher, the council's deputy leader and cabinet member for frontline services, said: “We do all in our power to encourage more residents to recycle their waste. It's never been easier to do so with a free weekly kerbside recycling collection. Recycling has more than trebled in the last four years, with a massive investment in a new plant, community recycling points, new refuse collections vehicles and innovative award-winning ways to promote recycling.”
Mayor announces new LWaRB chief operating officer
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has announced that Andy Holdcroft will be taking up the reins as the chief operating officer of the London Waste and Recycling Board.
Mr Holdcroft, who will assume the role on August 10, is a chartered accountant with 16 years of commercial experience in the energy and healthcare industries. He takes over managing the day-to-day business of the Board from Paul De Rivaz who has been acting as interim chief operating officer. The London Waste and Recycling Board was established in September 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story) with a budget of £84 million to spend over three years to improve waste management in the capital through increased recycling, minimising waste generation and finding more environmentally-friendly ways to process rubbish.
Mayor Johnson said: “I am delighted to welcome Andy Holdcroft to this important role. Over the last year, we have set up the Board from scratch to firmly establish itself as a major player in the world of waste. We are now entering a vital period where we are deciding where best to invest funds to deliver real, on the ground, improvements to London's recycling and waste management.”
Hampshire waste firm celebrates best-ever month of trading
The company reported that over 14,000 of its yellow Hippobags had been booked in for collection from homes, construction sites and work places last month, which was its best ever monthly performance. The polypropylene yellow bags act as an alternative to a skip and are designed to allow waste to be removed more easily. Full bags are collected, taken away and disposed of via the Hippowaste collection service, which recycles an average of over 80% of material.
Stephen Noar, executive chairman of Hippowaste, said: “Generally, people are thinking more carefully about the true cost of waste disposal and aren't willing to pay for unused space in a skip. They're also aware of the risks of cutting corners by using an unlicensed carrier and, with the emphasis these days on finding a green solution.”
Five new paper banks for Bromsgrove
Bromsgrove district council is working with paper-recycling firm Smurfit Kappa Recycling to introduce five new cardboard and paper banks at sites across the district.
The Worcestershire council has been working with the Tamworth-based company for more than a decade, and the recent expansion of facilities is expected to result in over 700 tonnes each year of material collected each year. All paper and cardboard collected from the five new sites is set to be reprocessed at the Smurfit Kappa paper mill in Birmingham.
Councillor Del Booth, portfolio holder for street scene and community at Bromsgrove, said: “Recently we have made some important steps to improve the way our district handles waste and recycling, and the provision of these extra banks is another step in that direction. The easier it is for us to recycle, the less waste we will create and that has to be a priority for our environment.”
Pathway to Zero Waste wins event award
Pathway To Zero Waste (PTZW), which was set up to help reduce volumes of both commercial & industrial and construction & demolition waste going to landfill in South East England (see letsrecycle.com story), was praised for the ‘Quick win' sessions run at its March 2009 launch event, which split attendees into groups of 10 to work out ways of identifying lasting and significant means of diverting waste from landfill.
Accepting the award, Dan Taylor, communication manager at PTZW, said: “Our aim was to inspire the 120 senior decision makers who were there from both the public and private sector to work together much more effectively on a mutually beneficial goal – dismantling the barriers that are impeding our region's transition to a resource-efficiency culture.”
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