Restructure set to help S Norton Group grow
Merseyside-headquartered metal recycler S Norton Group has revealed a ‘vision for growth’ following a restructure of the Group and the appointment of new managing director, Tony Hayer.
The company explained that the restructuring aims to help fully integrate the work of Axion Polymers, a plastics recycling specialist subsidiary acquired in 2018. The acquisition is said to have helped the metals recycler expand the solutions it offers to the market.
The group outlined that the appointment of a new managing director is also set to support its growth.
Tony Hayer brings 20 years of experience of working on large scale projects and business management, the company continued. It added that working with the board and management, Mr Hayer has implemented new structures and systems “to enable the company to focus on growth and support the delivery of sustainability goals for metal and plastic production”.
TrueCircle undergoes a rebrand
London-based climate tech company TrueCircle has announced its rebrand as Safi.
Founded in August 2021, TrueCircle said it has set out to build “intelligent solutions that bring valuable recyclable materials into the circular economy”. The company noted the experience in business building, recycling and robotics that its founding team brought from well-known start-ups.
According to the business, the name ‘TrueCircle’ was set to reflect the firm’s drive to build a transparent and sustainable circular economy. The name is now being changed to Safi as “the company evolves into its role as a matchmaker”, aiming to help make recycling systems more efficient.
Rishi Stocker, CEO and co-founder of Safi, commented: “We’re tackling the world’s most urgent problems resulting from consumption, mass production, and resource exploitation. That’s exciting. But ultimately, what we’re doing is connecting the dots to make recycling systems more efficient. Safi is here to make it even easier to participate in this.”
Ward announces new appointments
Midlands-based metal recycler Ward has announced the appointments of a national construction manager and a senior bid-manager.
Ward noted two additions to its commercial team, with Mick Roots appointed national construction manager and Kieron Shanks taking over the newly-created role of senior bid-manager.
According to the company, both appointments will be based at its head office, Donald Ward House in Ilkeston. They are set to report to Heather Foo, head of purchasing (metals) and sales (waste).
Working within the waste team, Mr Roots brings 25 years of sector experience and will be responsible for developing Ward’s customer base of key national and regional tier 1 construction contractors, Ward explained.
The metals recycler added that Kieron brings nine years of bid management experience to the business and will be responsible for increasing bidding capabilities and driving the bid function for Ward’s entire offering, supporting growth through the tender process.
RECOUP calls for transparency in marine plastic programmes
Plastics recycling charity RECOUP has released a report which found that inconsistency and ambiguity in language and operations risk undermining marine plastic programme efforts.
RECOUP explained that the report analysed 30 global marine programmes, including a mixture of collection schemes, technical innovators, and those that manufacture equipment and provide software to collect material and store data.
Tom McBeth, policy & infrastructure projects manager at RECOUP, commented: “Findings from the
report showed significant variation across the programmes we analysed, ranging from differences in
definitions and language used, materials targeted, environments collected from, and the
transparency around the process and end destination of the material.”
Mr McBeth highlighted inconsistency of language as a concern, noting the increasing importance of evidence-based results as packaging producers are increasingly seeking ways to incorporate recycled plastics and those collected from the natural environment.
RECOUP has developed five key interventions that “would help reduce confusion around marine programmes and their operations”. Some of these include implementing widely understood definitions relating to marine programmes, creditable auditing of the programmes and collected material and compliance with international legislation.
Reconomy facilitates donation of furniture
Services provider Reconomy said it has provided a circular template which saw furniture from a McDonald’s restaurant in the North West donated to YMCA Together in a social value initiative.
This comes on the back of Reconomy’s award as supplier in 2022 to help with solutions to minimise waste as part of McDonald’s ‘reimagining refurbishment works programme’.
The project saw Reconomy identify a “significant” reuse opportunity through the surplus-to-requirements furniture from a McDonald’s restaurant in Lymm (Warrington). The company outlined that an agreement was reached to donate the furniture to the Liverpool branch of YMCA Together, removing it as waste.
The reuse within the initiative generated £5,500 of social value, which is activity that has a direct impact on people and the community, Reconomy noted. It added that the solution can be scaled to act as a template across the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Ben Angove, sales director at Reconomy, commented: “We identified a social value opportunity to donate these items to registered charities and the project has been a positive experience, harnessing the benefits of the circular economy to support the franchisee and a community youth organisation.”
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