£400 fine for resident who ‘dumped waste at cardboard recycling bank’
A resident in North Powys has been fined £400 for dumping bags of rubbish in the cardboard recycling bank at their local community recycling site in Back Lane Carpark, Newtown.
The council said its waste awareness and enforcement officers came across the waste thrown in the recycling bank and a examination found a takeaway receipt which linked to a local residence.
Upon “confessing to depositing their waste improperly at the local community recycling site”, they were given the opportunity to resolve the issue extrajudicially by paying a £400 Fixed Penalty Notice. This penalty pertains to the act of fly-tipping as defined in Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Cllr Jackie Charlton, cabinet member for greener Powys said: “Some of our residents have no respect, lazily choosing to fly-tip their waste in these community recycling facilities.
“This anti-social behaviour not only means that our poor staff have to sort through the banks by hand, but also often results in all the correctly recycled material within the bank rejected by the recycling processors due to contamination. The selfish actions of a few irresponsible people result in a huge waste of everyone else’s time and efforts.”
Sainsbury’s swaps to cardboard hangers
Sainsbury’s has unveiled cardboard hangers across its Tu clothing baby range which have replaced its plastic hangers.
The company estimates that this move will save 103 tonnes of plastic from being used. The move follows a “successful trial” and will be available in over 400 stores across the UK.
Sainsbury’s also offers an instore recycling service for plastic hangers which “enables consumers to buy items and automatically have the hangers recycled in store”. The company says that between January and July this year, it has returned 12 million hangers from checkouts, equivalent to 85 tonnes of plastic.
Textiles initiative launched by University of Manchester
The University of Manchester has partnered with fashion studio RÆBURN Design to launch KIT:BAG, an initiative that looks at cutting textile waste in the football sector.
The project will work with local sportswear suppliers to turn surplus football shirts into reusable tote bags and run education programmes to warn them of the environmental impacts of textile waste.
It is believed that the UK disposes upwards of 1million tonnes of textiles every year of which 300,000 tonnes end up in landfill or incineration. Some figures even suggest that 10% of global CO2 emissions come from the fashion industry.
Lindsay Pressdee, senior lecturer in sustainable fashion marketing & branding communication at The University of Manchester, said: “Developing meaningful sustainable business models and consumer behaviours remains a key issue within the fashion sector and raises serious environmental concerns. This project focuses on the overlooked area of sportswear; how we can extend the life of these polyester garments and avoid them going into landfill or incineration, through the key principle of community education.
“The initiative aligns with The University of Manchester’s objectives of promoting sustainability and social responsibility and by collaborating with Raeburn Design, which follows the REMADE sustainable ethos, we have an excellent opportunity to raise awareness and address this issue.”
MP for Sittingbourne visits Biomass Plant in Ridham
Gordon Henderson, MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey learned how Biomass plants powered by waste wood can contribute to the UKs energy security and net zero goals on a visit to MVV Environments Ridham Dock facility in Kent.
The 25MW combined heat and power biomass plant had opened in 2015 and processed 195,000 tonnes of end-of-life post-consumer waste wood each year into renewable electricity.
The visit had been organised by MVV and had been held in partnership with the Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA). This visit had been part of the WRA’s ongoing MP engagement programme aimed at improving understanding of the wood recycling industry.
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