DCLG minister in Christmas recycling reminder
Communities minister Marcus Jones has this week (6 January) urged people to reduce, reuse and recycle the waste they may have produced over the Christmas holiday, highlighting a number of local authority-led schemes aimed at capturing Christmas waste.
The message comes in light of an estimate from local authorities that households generate nearly a third more waste over the festive season.
Mr Jones also praised councils that have set up new schemes to deal with the waste and said: “Councils across the country offer great initiatives to ensure we are donating our unwanted goods to a good home, meaning we don’t face a depressing January dodging old Christmas trees and overflowing bins on our pavements.
“My message to households is simple: find out what schemes are running in your area so you can reduce, reuse and recycle your Christmas rubbish.”
The minister also highlighted some of the schemes set up by local authorities to combat Christmas waste including Ealing which has a visual recycling tool, Teignbridge district council offering efficient gift wrapping advice and Dacorum borough council providing a green Christmas guide.
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Hertfordshire upgrades Letchworth HWRC
Hertfordshire council has completed work to upgrade its Letchworth household waste recycling centre (HWRC) after works to more than double the number of drop off points at the site.
Further improvements include changes to the site layout to provide more parking, enabling a quicker turnaround for users depositing waste and recycling and reducing queuing times outside the site.
Richard Thake, Hertfordshire’s cabinet member for waste management, said: “This household recycling centre is very well-used by residents, but we know that queuing is sometimes a problem.
“By removing old and failing compaction equipment and re-thinking the site layout, we’ve been able to increase the number of drop off points from 13 to 28.
“This should significantly reduce queuing on the road outside the site. Improved access to containers and additional capacity for recyclable materials means visitors will be able to dispose of their waste faster and spend less time at the centre.”
Mr Thake also reminded residents that they can also make use of their regular kerbside recycling rather than going to the HWRC, saving themselves both effort and time.
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Employees complete Grundon LGV driving apprenticeship
Eight trainee large goods vehicle (LGV) drivers have completed their apprenticeships with Oxfordshire company Grundon Waste Management.
This is the latest development in Grundon’s plan to help tackle the shortfall of 60,000 LGV drivers nationwide through its driver apprenticeship programme.
The waste management company also has a further 17 trainees currently studying for their qualification.
Anthony Tattersall, Grundon’s logistics support manager who is in charge of the training, said: “We recognise there is a real need to attract more people into the LGV industry and we are working hard to encourage and recruit new candidates to apply for our apprenticeship schemes.”
The apprenticeships, undertaken in partnership with Banbury-based JLD Driver Training, and part funded by Activate Learning, take an average of 12-18 months to complete and the company stated that Grundon drivers’ pass rate is over 90%.
All eight of the successful apprentices will join the Grundon team of around 400 drivers currently serving the company’s customers across the Thames Valley.
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Plastics education programme launched in Buxton
Nestle Waters has launched its R-Generation plastics recycling educational programme and competitions to schools in its ‘Recycle Cycle’ recycling scheme in Buxton.
Developed between partners Nestle Waters, RECOUP and Wastebusters, the project has involved development of education packs for both primary and secondary schools which include assemblies, films, lesson plans and teacher’s notes.
The primary school pack aims to help students understand the recycling journey of plastic bottles, while the secondary programme looks to encourage students to think differently about plastic and explores the psychology behind our attitudes towards recycling. Both packs involve competitions as incentives.
Steve Morgan, technical manager, RECOUP said: “With the UK plastic bottle recycling rate still under 60% and legislative drivers and rising costs of sending material to landfill, there is a clear need to educate and engage with the future generations.”
The programme is being trialled in Buxton with a view to being made freely available to schools nationally.
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