News in Brief

Glasgow city council has been applauded for adopting a requirement for future building programmes to include at least 10% recycled materials.

The city council is taking a step to stimulate demand for recycled materials having worked with the Waste & Resources Action Programme on a new primary school – Camstradden Primary in Drumchapel – that has a 20% recycled material content.

Praising the council, WRAP procurement programme manager David Moon said: “This provides a clear example of leadership in &#39c;losing the loop on recycling'.”

Onyx chief executive Cyrille du Peloux

The chief executive of waste firm Onyx in the UK is to take control over the company's interests across Northern Europe.

Cyrille du Peloux, already head of operations in Ireland and Norway as well as the UK, is assuming control in Sweden, Finland, the Baltic States, Germany and the Benelux countries. Mr du Peloux was recently elected chairman of the UK's Environmental Services Association.

Mr du Peloux commented: “It is with great pleasure and honour that I take on this challenging new role. These added countries offer great potential for growth for the organisation and I look forward to meeting the demands and expectations that these additional responsibilities will bring.”

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts has outlined how it will hand out a new 2 million fund for community recyclers.

Drawn from Defra's BREW initiative (see letsrecycle.com story), the “Business Re-use Fund” will offer funding for groups that work with businesses to re-use waste. Grants of 20,000 to 250,000 per year will be available for projects lasting a minimum of two years.

Expressions of interest for the fund must be in by January 13, 2006. Application forms and full guidance notes on the new fund have been made available from the RSWT website – www.rswt.org/waste.

Recycling rewarded: Brian Kilding (center) picks up his check from Yorwaste's John Miller and Hambleton recycling officer Michelle Saunders

Householder Brian Kilding has become the first winner of a recycling incentive scheme being run by Hambleton district council in North Yorkshire.

Mr Kilding, 67, was chosen at random to receive 50 for using his fortnightly blue bag paper recycling service, which is run by waste firm Yorwaste. Hambleton is one of 51 recycling incentive schemes funded by Defra across the UK since October (see letsrecycle.com story).

Hambleton councillor Bob Baker said: “We hope this incentive scheme will enable our residents to see how vitally important it is that we try to recycle as much as possible – sending more waste to landfill is simply not a viable option anymore.”

Residents in Milton Keynes are being asked to recycle their aluminium foil, after a local community group opened a new recycling facility.

Milton Keynes Christian Foundation has opened a new 8,000 square foot warehouse complete with crushers and balers to recycle aluminium collected in foil banks provided by the council. The group is now looking at the viability of a business paper recycling scheme.

Milton Keynes councillor Douglas McCall said: “MKCF's new recycling plant will increase our capacity for recycling foil and help to reduce the amount we put in our black sacks.”