News in Brief

The Recycling Electrical Producers' Consortium – REPIC – has appointed electronics producer Alba plc to its management board.

The not-for-profit company, which believes it will become the UK's largest compliance scheme helping electronics firms deal with electronics recycling regulations from July, said Alba joins seven other members represented on the board – BSH Home Appliances, Glen Dimplex, Hoover, Indesit Company UK, Kenwood, Panasonic UK and Philips Electronics UK. Three REPIC executive directors also sit on the board.

Graham Woodroffe, division director for compliance at Alba plc, said: “We were delighted to be appointed to the board at REPIC by the members, particularly at such an exciting time for the company.”

The scheme is running WEEE Compliance workshop sessions to highlight the impact the new regulations will have on their members' operations, in central London on January 29 and Manchester on February 2.

Nottinghamshire community paint re-use group the Unique Scrap Store has formed a ground-breaking partnership with a local council housing organisation.

Alison Farr (left) of the Unique Scrap Store and Caroline Meek of Newark and Sherwood Homes celebrate the new partnership.

The group, part of the national Re>Paint scheme, will offer surplus paint collected from local industry and individuals to tenants of the Newark & Sherwood Homes organisation for 50p per litre. Hopes are the scheme could be rolled out to other Re>Paint groups around the country if it proves successful.

Alison Farr, Unique Scrap Store marketing coordinator, said: “As a local community organisation we are very pleased to be working in partnership with Newark and Sherwood Homes to benefit local people and the environment. Over the past few months we have found numerous ways in which both organisations can benefit from each others' experience.”

Construction of a new 1.9 million household waste recycling centre at Winsford in Cheshire is to get underway today.

Funded by the county council, the 12,000 square metre facility is being built by West Bromich-based contractors Forker Ltd and is due to open in Autumn 2007. Dedicated skips and containers will enable residents to recycle a wide range of items from glass, garden waste, paper and cardboard to cans, batteries, oil, plastics textiles and timber.

Cheshire's executive member for environment, Andrew Needham, said: “The development at Lesley Road will greatly exceed the size and recycling facilities of the present New Road HWRC. The new facility will feature on-site queue space to avoid congestion, full disabled access and secure fencing. Landscaping will include visual screening, new planting and a wetland habitat with a pond.”

One of the steps towards “greening” the Bywaters operation has been switching account management staff to these hybrid Toyota Prius cars

East London recycling and waste firm Bywaters has achieved the ISO 14001:2004 environmental management system for its new site at Bromley-by-Bow.

The 20m turnover company is developing a massive materials recycling facility at the 9.2-acre site next to the River Lea (see letsrecycle.com story).

The new environmental management system covers the vehicle maintenance workshop, office headquarters and hazardous waste brokerage already running at the site. It also covers all activities conducted at the waste transfer station at Marshgate One and the engineering workshops at Marshgate Two.

“Having implemented an environmental management system to this standard, Bywaters’ staff are now all very familiar with the environmental significance of correct waste management,” said Dr Alan Kirk, environmental manager at Bywaters. “This, in turn, means that they can advise customers on the best way to arrange waste disposal to minimise environmental impacts.”

Kent-based demolition and waste management company Ling Industrial Services has boosted its tyre recycling operations with the purchase of a new shredder.

The company has taken on a 250,000 purpose-built Untha RS100-4 secondary tyre shredder to work alongside its existing tyre shredder. The new machine has been supplied by North Yorkshire firm Riverside Waste Machinery, the sole distributors of the Austrian-made Untha shredders in the UK. The purchase came after the success of Ling's first machine, also supplied by Riverside.

Managing director Robin Ling said: “The RS100 represents a new generation of tyre shredding and metal separation equipment. This will be good for the environment and help the Government to meet its recycling targets.”