News in brief

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committee has said that a new post of minister for climate change should be created.

The claim has been made in the latest Environmental Committee report. The organisation said that the post would ensure that climate change issues are put at the very heart of government.

Michael Jack, chairman of the Committee, said: “Our report reveals that whilst many government departments say they are contributing to the objective of dealing with the climate change agenda, not all of them are working together as effectively as they should be to achieve the overall aims of the government policies in this area.

What is needed is someone with sufficient ministerial clout to be able to knock heads together and ensure that all departments are travelling the same road when it comes to dealing with the consequences of climate change,” he added.

The government should also use the current review of the UK Climate Change Programme as an opportunity to toughen up measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, say members of the Committee.

A project to develop the opportunities for recycling paper mill sludge into new products is being funded by the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP).

The project will use technology from Canada to process the paper mill sludge into usable materials. This will take place at the new KDS Micronex sludge processing plant developed by First American Scientific Corporation at Aylesford Newsprint's Kent site as a demonstration plant.

The Micronex equipment is expected to be running at full capacity in June and will be installed and initially operated by construction company RB plant.

David Powlan, technical manager for paper at WRAP, said: “With higher quality requirements for paper, and rising landfill costs, the volume and cost of sludge disposal is becoming an inhibiting commercial factor for the further expansion of recycled paper manufacture.

“This WRAP project will use new technology to explore the potential for overcoming this barrier and improving the economics of producing new paper products from recycled fibre,” he said.

National lamp recycler Lampcare (UK) Recycling Limited, has signed up Linpac Materials Handling to supply containers to help in the collection of lamps.

Lampcare operates lamp recycling plants in Harlow, Essex and Glasgow and can handle the removal and recovery of mercury, sodium and phosphor from fluorescent tubes, street lamps and other industrial lighting systems.

Fluoresent tubes can be particularly difficult to transport as they are long, brittle and delicate. Linpac claim that its folding large containers ensure that in the event of damage or breakage, sodium and mercury leakage will be contained.

Keith Paterson, managing director at Lampcare, said: “Linpac's extended FLCs allow us to safely transport some of the longest and most difficult to handle tubes recovered by Lampcare.

“The containers are strong, robust and easily transportable in our dedicated lorry fleet and can be stacked to make best use of truck and storage capacity, without any threat of leakage or compression damage,” he added.

Merton borough council has joined forces with the Waste and Resources Action Programme to provide its residents with subsidised composting bins.

The council held an open day at the Civic Centre, Morden to give residents a chance to see how composting bins work. Residents were also offered the chance to order one, with prices starting from 5. A compost advisor from WRAP and Merton's waste management officer were both present at the event.

The council hopes to sell several thousand compost bins this year and persuade residents to compost more of their organic garden and kitchen waste.

Councillor Linda Kirkby, Merton council's cabinet member for environmental quality, said: “I urge residents to take advantage of the subsidised price of the bins and to try composting. It not only helps to reduce the amount of waste that you send to landfill but it is also good for your garden.”