News in Brief

Leicestershire county council is running a prize draw to encourage residents to recycle their old Christmas trees – with 200 in garden centre vouchers up for grabs.

The draw is being run through the county's 14 recycling and household waste sites with all tree recyclers given free entry into the competition. Compost made from green waste including the Christmas trees is sold at all of the centres for 2 per 40-litre bag, with the county selling 15,000 bags of composted green waste during 2006.

Prof. Mike Preston, cabinet member for waste management at Leicestershire, said: “Around seven million real Christmas trees are purchased in the UK each year, which would potentially create a huge amount of waste. If you haven’t got a live tree that you can plant in your garden to dig up next year, the next best thing is to take your unwanted Christmas tree to a recycling and household waste site.”

Craddock Metal Recycling in Redditch has replaced an old loader and a forklift with the new Kramer 880

Redditch-based Craddock Metal Recycling has taken delivery of a new Kramer materials loading vehicle.

The Kramer 880 all-wheel steer, hydrostatic drive loading shovel has been supplied by Roy Francis Plant Sales of Melksham, and will be used mainly for moving ferrous scrap metal. The largest wheeled loader in the Kramer range, the 880 is powered by a 122hp Deutz turbocharged and intercooled diesel engine, and offers a maximum payload and load-over height of 4200 kg and 3530 mm respectively.

The Kramer 880 has been fitted with filled tyres to cut out potential punctures, and according to Adrian Craddock is: “surprisingly powerful for its size and copes exceptionally well with pretty much anything we throw at it.”

Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe has handed a 19,250 cheque to charity Save the Children, as a direct result of recycling success in Redcar & Cleveland.

The borough's recycling contractor, Abitibi pledges 1 to the charity for every tonne of glass, cans, paper and textiles collected from the kerbside. Abitibi's regional manager Lenny Corrigan said: “We are delighted to be working with the Council as their recycling service collection contractor. Residents who use the kerbside collection service should be very proud they have raised so much for an excellent charity.”

The cheque was presented to Nancy Webb, secretary of the Guisborough Group for the Save the Children Fund, who said: “I want to thank the residents who put out their recycling for collection, the Council workers who make the collections and Abitibi who recycle and donate so much to charities.”

Poole borough council has switched a second recycling and refuse collection vehicle to run on recycled vegetable oil.

Poole is aiming to have four collection vehicles running on recycled vegetable oil

Following the launch of the first bio-fuel recycling vehicle last August, the borough decided to convert a further three vehicles over the next six months. The vehicles are being converted by Oxfordshire firm Regenatec, which claims the conversion can cut fuel bills by 10% as well as reducing climate change-causing emissions.

The new vehicles are started on diesel, but then automatically change to the bio-fuel oil once the engine has warmed up. Poole's environment cabinet member, Cllr Don Collier, said: “We pride ourselves on our efforts to be an environmentally-friendly authority. Pure vegetable oil offers great advantages over bio-diesel for commercial vehicles. It is a cleaner, more eco-friendly fuel and has far less impact on the environment than conventional diesel fuel.”

Audit Commission inspectors have praised Teesdale district council for its “good” waste management service.

In its latest report, Teesdale was praised for high levels of customer satisfaction and its recycling rate of 27.5% for 2005/06, which exceeded its target. However, the Commission warned that the amount of waste in Teesdale was increasing above national trends, the cost of refuse collection was high, and that there was little enforcement activity.

Sarah Diggle, Audit Commission senior manager, said: “Teesdale is providing good waste services to suit local needs and has a strong focus on its customers. It's investing and working with other to improve the environment and how it informs local people about service standards and future plans. However, the council will need to clarify it plans for future improvement.”