A national paint reuse scheme has announced a 17% increase in its collections following an assessment carried out by environmental consultants Save Waste and Prosper.
According to consultants SWAP, Community Re-Paint diverted 132,000 litres of leftover paint from landfill between August 2003 and July 2004. The paint had a market value of 515,000 and was redistributed to 7,630 recipients.
Jenny Hartland, Community Repaint scheme co-ordinator at SWAP and author of the report said that the results were a testament to the excellent work carried out by the network.
She said: “These results illustrate the good use that leftover paint can be put to by diverting it from landfill. It is clear the Community Re-Paint network is providing a real solution to the problem of leftover household paint which can contaminate other recyclable materials.”
The findings revealed that on average an individual scheme typically redistributes 2,350 litres of paint to over 100 individuals and 34 community groups. Once distributed the paint is used in a variety of ways including redecorating community groups' premises and mural paintings by youth groups.
Carmarthenshire launches green waste scheme
Carmarthenshire council has re-launched its green waste scheme for residents, following a successful trial last year.
The council delivered sacks to 24,000 homes for the collection of grass, hedge cuttings, tree prunings and plants. It will collect the bags every fortnight and take them to a compost site at Nantycaws.
Principal waste officer, Hywel Thomas, said: “The scheme was very successful last year and we are hoping for an even better response this year. To start with the scheme will cover areas already covered by our blue box collection. We hope to expand the scheme to other parts of the county soon.”
The council has also recently taken to recycling the paperwork used in last year's community and county council elections.
Around 1.4 tonnes of paperwork will be delivered to Recycling in Cillefwr for recycling. Rules state that all papers should be kept for six months and then destroyed confidentially, so the council has kept all electoral registration forms, canvas forms, leaflets, posters, unused ballot papers and counterfoils in storage.
Used ballot papers will be destroyed at a later date to ensure they cannot be matched with other paperwork.
Christmas card recycling campaign breaks records
The Woodland Trust has said its eighth annual Christmas card recycling campaign has broken all previous records to recycle over 58 million cards over the 2004/05 festive season.
Working with the national Recycle Now campaign and retailers Tesco and WH Smith, the Christmas card campaign encouraged householders to deposit their old cards in bins within stores run by the supermarket and stationery chains.
As well as working with Recycle Now and its partners WHSmith and Tesco, the campaign was supported by Nottinghamshire County Council, which administers the support from local authorities on behalf of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers. SCA Recycling and Severnside Recycling collected and recycled the cards.
Penny Pulfrey of the Woodland Trust said: “This is the first time we have exceeded 50 million cards and the first time we have recycled over 1,000 tonnes. I would like to thank everyone who has taken part; the response to this year’s scheme has been brilliant.”
The organisation said next year’s campaign has already received the backing of current partners Tesco, Recycle Now and Nottinghamshire county council on behalf of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers.
Composting Association publishes guide to anaerobic digestion
The Composting Association has published a guide to anaerobic digestion in response to demand from the waste management industry.
A Guide to Anaerobic digestion: Plus a Directory of System Suppliers is a companion piece to the association's Guide to In-vessel Composting, which was published last year.
The guide briefly introduces the area of anaerobic digestion and reviews the drivers for increasing the use of this technology. The main section of the guide is devoted to the technical and operating details of 15 different systems which are currently available in the UK.
Areas discussed in the guide include the processes which need to be understood by anyone looking to invest in the technology and how these principles affect the commissioning and daily operation of a facility, the animal by-product regulations and the veterinary approval process.
Register for free to comment