Defra performance grant and news in brief

English councils have been told how much funding they will receive from the 215 million remaining in Defra's Waste Performance and Efficiency Grant.

Heading for its second year, the three-year grant is extra help for councils setting up new recycling services. Councils are not forced to use the funding on waste improvements, but are encouraged to do so. Those in two-tier areas are also being urged to use the money on joint projects.

Minister Ben Bradshaw said: “Sharing the burden of costs through more effective joint working with neighbouring authorities could deliver better value for money as well as improved service delivery.”

The funding has been shared out based on councils' populations and the size of their waste spending. A list of all individual allocations can be found at the Defra website.

Businesses that generate hazardous wastes are being recruited to the Agency's scheme to help cut their costs

Agency recruits businesses to hazardous waste scheme

The Environment Agency is leading a new EU-funded project to help small businesses cut costs by reducing the amount of hazardous waste they produce.

HAZRED, which will run over three years, is currently seeing hazardous waste reduction plans being drawn up for around 120 businesses in six industry sectors – the construction, metals, vehicles, photographic, chemicals and machinery sectors.

Project scientist Jon Foreman explained: “The introduction of new hazardous waste obligations and the requirements of the Landfill Directive mean that businesses are facing increased waste management costs and many are having to deal with the complexities of dealing with hazardous waste for the first time.”

Rockware Glass has been given final clearance for its takeover of Redfearn Glass, the former UK operations of Rexam Glass in Barnsley.

In its final report on the acquisition, the Competition Commission ruled that the deal could not be expected to result in a reduction in competition within the glass container market in the UK. Rockware and its parent Ardagh Glass had been given the provisional go-ahead last month (see letsrecycle.com story).

Diana Guy, who chairs the Commission's inquiry group, said: “Although we were concerned by the loss of an independent competitor, a number of factors meant that we could not conclude with any certainty that Ardagh would have the incentive and ability to use this position it acquired through the merger to the detriment of customers.”

Awareness co-ordinator Jane Gunn and site supervisor Frank Burgess with one of the new battery containers

Batteries now included in Surrey

Residents in Surrey are being offered the chance to recycle their household batteries at 15 recycling centres throughout the county as the Festive season gets underway.

SITA-subsidiary Surrey Waste Management has become the latest waste firm to work with West Midlands firm G&P; Batteries to collect both single-use and rechargeable batteries for recycling.

A spokesperson for SWM commented, “Highly visible green bins will be displayed in a prominent position and will be easily accessible. We can assure our customers that these types of batteries will be re-processed in environmentally sound conditions where the components are removed and recycled into new products.”

A Boston-based electronic waste recycler is moving to new premises thanks to a Big Lottery Fund grant from the Community Recycling and Economic Development Programme.

Unplugged, which received 67,655 from CRED, disassembles end of life electronic equipment and sells the materials on for recycling. The Lincolnshire company's new facility is situated near a civic amenity site on Slippery Gowt Lane.

Joe Durso, project manager for Unplugged, said: “CRED funding will allow unplugged to expand its operation in order to increase the volume of waste which we can handle.”