News in Brief

Businesses in Swale, Kent, have been offered a new paper collection service by paper reprocessor M-Real and collection firm Allwaste Disposal.

Waste paper that is collected through the scheme will be sent for recycling at M-real's New Thames mill in Kelmsley, where it will be turned into Evolve office paper. Businesses can then buy Evolve paper, effectively “closing the loop” in the paper chain.

The New Thames mill has the capacity to recycle 180,000 tonnes of paper each year, which is the equivalent to about 16% of the UK's office paper waste the company said.

Rachel Roberts, development and environment engineer for M-real, said: “The scheme provides an excellent opportunity for local businesses to reduce their environmental footprint, by reducing both the amount of waste they send to landfill and the transport distances associated with their waste disposal and paper supply.”

Sims Group UK has commissioned a new “pre-shredder” to process all sizes of tyres from earth moving trucks at its Stayleybridge plant, near Manchester.

The new 400 bhp SSI truck tyre shredder shreds truck tyres into 400mm pieces, before they are shredded by more conventional machinery

Although such tyres are not affected by the legislation banning whole used tyres from landfill, Sims said tyres from earth movers are difficult to dispose of. New equipment has been provided by US-based SSI.

The 400 break horse power shredder rips apart tyres, reducing them down to material no bigger than 400mm in size. The material is then processed by conventional shredders with additional materials, such as steel, removed.

The company's spokesman Dan Cronin said: “Some companies retread them, but we now have equipment which will shred then in preparation for recycling into high quality rubber granulate. We estimate that there are about 7,000 tonne of these tyres around each year.”

The company said it has the capacity to take earth mover tyres from around the country at its Stayleybridge plant. Including other types of tyres, the plant currently processes about 2,000 tonnes of used tyres a month.

Waste management company Onyx is working with Sheffield-based recycling charity Reclaim to provide a trial textile recyling collection in the city.

The six-month trial, which will cover around 6,000 households, will allow residents to recycle textiles via a kerbside bag collection. Onyx will be analysing the results and if they are positive the company will be looking to take the scheme city wide.

Reclaim will be collecting the materials on behalf of Onyx, passing them on to other charities in the area for reuse and recycling.

Collection bags and leaflets explaining how the trial service will work will be distributed to households in the area and collections will begin at the end of April.

Judith Turner, operations director for collection and recycling at Onyx, said: “When we studied what items were being thrown away in Sheffield we found a high percentage of textiles. This trial is designed to make it convenient for people to do their bit at the same time as benefiting charities.”

Her Majesty The Queen has announced 137 winners of The Queen's Awards for Enterprise, which include several companies in the recycling sector.

This year's International Trade award winners include two scrap metal recycling companies – Dunn Brothers of Smethwick and North London-based GD Metal Recycling. Awards in this category also went to Sutton Coldfield-based recycling machinery specialists Advanced Crusher Spares as well as Warwickshire wood and green waste shredder firm GreenMech.

Fonebak, the mobile phone re-use and recycling export company was recognised for increasing its overseas sales by 127% over three years to 27million. Kathy Woodward, Fonebak's chief executive, said: “We are delighted to have won the Queen's award for Enterprise in the International Trade category.”

Best Foot Forward, the consultancy that has worked with Biffaward to measure resource efficiencies within various sectors in the UK, has also won an award in the sustainable development category.

An award in the Innovation category went to ScotAsh, which is based in Fife and specialises in recycling ash from coal-powered power stations.