News in brief

Viridor and SITA among Recoups 12 new members

Recoups new members include: SITA UK; RPC Group; Viridor; Machinex; Kent Resource Partnership; Centriforce Products; PlasRecycle; Ellen MacArthur Foundation; Ashortwalk Ltd; Brunel University London; Campden BRI; and, Milton Keynes council.

Membership growth was also seen at the European Association of Plastics Recycling & Recovery Organisations (ERPO), which represents national organisations which promote recycling and recovery of plastics throughout Europe. Three organisations from the Netherlands, Canada and South Africa joined ERPO in 2013 bringing its total membership up to 19 members.

Commenting on what the growth means, chief executive office at Recoup, Stuart Foster, said: Membership growth in 2013 for two key plastic recycling associations demonstrates growing importance of plastic recycling and continued commitment from leading stakeholders.

Bryn Compost given formal odour warning

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has served a formal warning and an enforcement notice to a Welsh composting company after complaints about strong odours from the site in the Gelligaer, Caerphilly.

Officers from NRW carried out an investigation of the site which found that Bryn Compost part of the Bryn Group was exceeding the volume of waste it is permitted to keep on the site per year.

According to NRW, the increase in waste is likely to have been responsible for the increase in odour problems at the site.

The company now has to make sure it does not exceed its waste input limits over the next 12 months so that this type of breach does not happen again and NRW is stepping up its regulation of the site.

Gareth OShea, from Natural Resources Wales, said: Since we granted the permit to Bryn Compost in 2005, we have regularly reviewed their activities and enforced a number of improvements to operations at the site.

We continue to monitor operations at the site very closely and will be increasing inspections to make sure these latest improvements are made to reduce the impact of odour on people living in the area.

In April 2013, Bryn Quarry Ltd also part of the Bryn Group was granted planning permission to build an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, which will process 35,000 tonnes of food waste per year at the Gelliarwellt Farm site. Planning was also granted for a materials recycling facility (MRF) at the same site (see letsrecycle.com story).

WEEE schemes form pan-European compliance network

Several of Europes leading producer compliance schemes for electronic goods, including UK compliance scheme Repic, have joined together to form a pan-European WEEE compliance network, WEEE Europe AG.

Manufacturers, importers and retailers of electronic appliances operating are required under the EUs Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive to register with a producer compliance scheme which carries out the recycling of waste electrical goods on their behalf.

Producers operating in several countries are required to register with schemes in each of the countries they operate in. Members of any of WEEE Europes participating compliance scheme can join another affiliated compliance scheme in a different country.

It is hoped that this will make the process of complying with the European WEEE regulations easier for obligated businesses.

Alongside Repic, other members of the scheme include: Elretur in Denmark, Eco-systemes in France, Remedia in Italy, Wecycle in the Netherlands, Elretur in Norway, Swico and SENS eRecycling in Switzerland and Ecotic Fundacion in Spain.

Christian Ludwig, chief executive at WEEE Europe AG, said: The administrative cost for all market players is huge from mid-tier businesses to major corporations. Our aim is to simplify processes and to offer efficient solutions to fulfil the various national WEEE recycling registration and reporting requirements at a competitive price.

CIWM issues guidance for healthcare producers

The Chartered Institution for Wastes Management (CIWM) has today (January 17) published guidance on waste auditing for large healthcare firms.

Prepared by CIWMs Healthcare Waste Special Interest Group, the document is designed to provide simple and concise guidance on pre-acceptable waste audits, as required by the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations.

According to the Royal College of Nursing, the audits can bring benefits including estimated savings of 5.5 million for the NHS if just 20% of incorrectly classified infectious waste were to be reclassified as offensive waste, with lower waste management costs.

Commenting on the guidance, Mat Crocker, head of illegals & waste for the Environment Agency, said: It is essential that producers of waste correctly segregate and describe their waste to ensure that it is managed correctly and gets to the right place.

This guidance for producers of healthcare waste sets out how waste audits can help producers both to fulfil their requirements and to enable their waste management contractor to comply with their legal obligations. The Environment Agency welcomes this publication and the work that CIWM has put into its production.

Merseyside schools cut food waste in communities

Over 2,000 Mersyeside school pupils and their families are set to cut food waste, improve their health and save money as part of a 20,000 cookery project.

Funded by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA) and Veolia Environmental Services Community Fund, the project will see more than 40 schools running sessions in their communities to raise awareness of how to reduce food waste.

The project, in partnership with cooking club network Lets Get Cooking, follows research conducted by Love Food Hate Waste showing the average family throws 60 worth of food away each month.

Lets Get Cookings Eileen Wallace said: This project aims to help families eat healthily while cutting their waste and budget. We share recipes that use up leftovers and can be batch cooked and frozen so nothing goes to waste. We also give tips and tricks for meal planning, safe food storage and reading best before and sell by dates, so people can make the most of their food.

Carl Beer, chief executive of MRWA, said:” We pleased to be supporting such a worthwhile project which we hope will have real impacts on the amount of food thrown away.