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News in brief (05/12/2022)

With news on: Recycle Week 2022 ‘a huge success’; council warns of ‘rogue’ textile banks; DAERA to hold workshop on waste management strategy; Construction restarts on Edmonton EfW; and, Geminor enters Spanish market.


Recycle Week 2022 ‘a huge success’

This year’s Recycle Week, which focused on driving impact, real action and behaviour change, was declared “a huge success” by WRAP’s behavioural change project manager Richard Clapham.

Mr Clapham praised the amount of activity happening across the country and expressed his gratitude to everyone that supported this year’s campaign, which took place between 17-23 October.

He noted that for the first time, most of the media spend was focused on driving engagement rather than optimising for reach. This comes as the new strategy shifted its focus from awareness to conversions and behaviour change, Mr Clapham added.

This year’s Recycle Week was postponed to 17 – 23 October due to the passing of the Queen

According to Mr Clapham, this year’s Recycle Week was optimised to drive people to WRAP’s Recycling Locator, which provides citizens with information on what can be recycled in their local authority.

Mr Clapham said that this approach resulted in +88% more Recycling Locator searches compared to the week prior to the campaign. Additionally, 14% of UK adults are said to recall seeing or hearing about the campaign, equating to 7.1 million citizens.

Of these, 47% said they did something differently as a result, equating to 3.7 million citizens, Mr Clapham noted.


Council warns of ‘rogue’ textile banks

Warrington borough council advised its citizens last week (28 November) that those wishing to donate clothes should check that they’re using a genuine textile bank.

This comes as the council said it has seen a recent influx of “rogue” textile recycling banks across Warrington.

Warrington borough council warned of “rogue” textile banks appearing all over the area

It warned that these have been appearing all over the town, including in car parks and retail parks as well as sites where there are no official containers. The council added that “they don’t appear to be affiliated to any charity, do not have a charity number and are being placed without landowners’ permission”.

The local authority pointed out that it is “very unlikely” clothes and shoes in these containers will be helping charitable causes, or being disposed of responsibly. The council suggested that residents look for textile banks that are clearly marked with the council logo or are registered to a known charity.


DAERA to hold workshop on waste management

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) is seeking views from the recycling industry as it prepares its new waste management strategy.

The department will be hosting a workshop to help inform the development of the strategy on 13 December.

Northern Ireland recycling
DAERA is seeking views on the development of its new waste management strategy

DAERA said it officials are keen to “explore the actions we might collectively need to take to meet new recycling and landfill reduction targets, reduce litter and tackle plastic pollution”.

It noted that it is important for the waste management strategy to be informed by “as many different perspectives as possible”, calling on businesses, councils and “anyone with an interest in waste management”.


Construction restarts on Edmonton EfW

The North London Waste Authority (NLWA) has confirmed that construction activities on the Edmonton facility will continue in a “controlled approach”, after it was halted following a fatality on 23 November.

The incident saw a man in his 50s die after a collision with a heavy goods vehicle. Construction of the 700,000 tonnes facility was halted, before beginning again on 30 November.

Construction works on the Edmonton EfW plant restarted last week (30 November)

NLWA and Acciona announced in a joint statement last week that “construction activities will follow a controlled approach to restarting once a thorough review of safety procedures for each activity has been completed”, with the first of those activities resuming on the day.

The statement explained that the decision to reopen the site follows extensive consideration. It added that the activities associated with the incident are still “under review” and will not commence until Acciona is completely satisfied that it is safe to do so.


Geminor enters Spanish market

Geminor has unveiled plans to expand operations in 2023 into the Spanish market.

The company said that its senior business development manager Kai Schöpwinkel “will be leading Geminor’s move into Spain as well as a planned expansion of operations in France”.

Geminor’s senior business development manager, Kai Schöpwinkel

Mr Schöpwinkel highlighted that both recycling and energy recovery markets are growing in the two countries. He explained that Spain is “predominantly an offtake market”, where the firm “will be focusing on waste wood for material recycling as well as solid recovered fuel (SRF) for cement production”.

Mr Schöpwinkel said: “Still, Spain has the potential for more export of materials for recycling, and we will be searching for new streams with our partners in Italy and France.”

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