News in Brief

This year's Recoup plastic bottle survey has found that 73% of local authorities now offer collection facilities for plastic bottles.

The UK Plastic Bottle Recycling Survey 2005, which took data from all 477 UK local authorities, found that 348 councils collect plastic bottles for recycling. The number of plastic bottle collection schemes increased by 18% on last year, the survey suggested.

Collection tonnages for plastic bottles have doubled, with 48,397 tonnes collected for recycling – but this still only represents about 10.5% of the bottles in the household waste stream. Kerbside collections were most popular, with two in every three recycled bottles being collected from the kerbside.

Recoup chief executive Andrew Simmons said the survey results were “great news”. He said: “Using the data provided, it is estimated that the provision of plastic bottle recycling within kerbside collections will exceed 10.9 million households during 2006. This means 44% of all UK households will be able to recycle plastic bottles on their doorstep.”

The organisation predicts that about 65,703 tonnes of plastic bottles will be collected for recycling each year by 2007.

Newport Wastesavers has been named as the “best community recycling project in the year” at an award ceremony in Coventry.

Winners (from left to right): Paul Jones, Mike Croxford, Carol Fereday, Peter Clissold, Penny Goodwin and Jessica Caines, from Newport Wastesavers.

The award at the Resource Awards recognised the innovation within the community recycling group, which is helping Newport city council to recycle over 25% of household waste – one of the highest recycling rates in Wales.

Wastesavers is currently undergoing “rapid expansion”, and has recently moved to a new purpose-built facility, the Cleanstream Resource Centre, in order to meet Newport’s growing recycling needs.

Commenting on the award, Wastesavers general manager Mike Croxford said it was a “big pat on the back” for the efforts of the group. Mr Croxford said: “We're evolving further over the next few years through the collection of a wider range of materials and more training work with the long-term unemployed. We hope that we'll continue to be held up as an example to other councils and recycling collectors, through our innovative work.”

The next 12 months will see a new white goods re-use service introduced by Wastesavers, as well as as the roll-out of recycling mini-sites for communal flats and sheltered housing in Newport.

The first piece of legislation ever to pass a US legislature – state or federal – requiring manufacturers to design their products to be easier for recycling became law last month.

Robin Weiner of the Bureau of International Recycling's international environmental council informed BIR members today that the State of Arkansas has passed a “Mercury Switch Removal Act” requiring vehicle manufacturers to design vehicles and their components for easier recycling.

Ms Weiner explained that companies must report their steps taken to improve cars' recyclability to the State authorities, or have third party organisations report steps taken on their behalf.

She said: “The report must include a listing of all compliance and reports received by manufacturers within the past 12 months from vehicle recyclers, scrap recycling facilities and government entities.”

The Act comes as a result of pressure from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries to address the presence of mercury in vehicles. Ms Weiner said that the organisation was now aggressively fighting to get similar legislation passed in other states.

Councils are being offered a new resource to assist in the formation of “virtual waste authorities” – closer working between waste disposal authorities and waste collection authorities.

With this year's Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, councils have been given more flexibility to arrange partnerships to bring about efficiency improvements, and the Local Government Association has now provided a webpage on the IDeA website to help share case studies and best practice information.

Cllr David Sparks, chairman of the LGA's environment board, said: “Councils are using cutting edge technology to deliver services. 'Virtual waste authorities' are the latest innovation. Joining together will help local authorities to hit government targets, deal with climate change and save money.”

The LGA hopes that partnership working will deliver some of the 300 million in efficiency savings demanded by the government in local authority waste and street-cleaning services by 2007/08.