News in Brief

The Women's Institute is to take action to reduce waste in their own homes and lobby for manufacturers, retailers and decision makers to take action to reduce waste.

The resolution was backed by 99.4% of the 6,000 members present at the Institute's annual general meeting last week. The resolution called for a combination of personal actions by WI members to recycle and reduce household waste and lobbying retailers, manufacturers, local and national government on waste issues.

This could include lobbying for food, cosmetics and cleaning liquids to be sold in refillable or returnable containers and a national strategy to increase product life through design, repair and reconditioning.

The National Federation of Women's Institutes is the largest national organisation for women in the UK with 215,000 members. This year's AGM heard from Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucas, who welcomed the overwhelming support for the resolution.

Dr Lucas said: “Action on waste and resource conservation really matter, and the WI can make a real difference – both through the actions its members take on a daily basis and through the power of their advocacy to manufacturers and decision-maker.”

East Hertfordshire district council has won an award from paper reprocessor Aylesford Newsprint for delivering recycled paper of a high quality.

Kelly King of Aylesford Newsprint presents East Hertfordshire council with the top award for quality recovered paper supply.

Aylesford suppliers since 1994, the council scooped a 500 prize for its efforts in diverting 4,591 tonnes of used newspapers and magazines away from landfill over the past year.

Area managers from Aylesford regularly visit a variety of paper schemes around the country, and this year's quality award recognizes East Herts' success through the council's attention to detail and understanding of the recycling process.

“The quality of the paper supplied by East Herts District Council is consistently high,” said Aylesford Newsprint Area Manager Kelly King. “They regularly achieve quality levels of at least 4.5 which are outstanding.”

Ms King said the council had opened its own depot in June 2004 and put “a great deal of time and effort into checking and sorting their material”. Aylesford also praised the council for working closely with its contractor, Enterprise MRS.

Runners up to East Herts Council were Braintree District Council and West Devon Borough Council, both consistent suppliers of good quality recovered paper according to Aylesford.

A Buckinghamshire car breakers yard has been fined after pleading guilty to operating without a waste management license.

John Turvey, operating at Court Lane, Iver Buckinghamshire, pleaded guilty to illegally operating his vehicle salvage yard and was fined 9,000 with 2,054.50 costs.

High Wycombe Magistrates' Court heard that Mr Turvey had been operating an end of life motor vehicle site since August 2003. Officers visited the site in May 2004 and informed Mr Turvey that his site would need an end of life vehicle licence.

Investigating officers returned in August and November of last year to find that the site was still operating illegally and waste motor vehicles were being stored on unsuitable ground, containing oils and other toxic materials including battery acid.

Investigating officer Peter Stark said: “His contempt for the law as well as complete disregard of the threat this operation posed to the environment left the Environment Agency no choice but to prosecute Mr Turvey.”

Green waste and wood waste reprocessor Nutramulch UK has invested in 500,000 of new shredding equipment from Blue Machinery Ltd.

Nutramulch is processing green waste and wood waste with its new Doppstadt machines

The latest additions to the Nutramulch fleet are a Doppstadt AK-430 high-speed shredder and an AK-600 Multi III shredder, both of which are busy processing wood and green waste as the first step in a burgeoning composting operation for Nutramulch at their Hull and Kirton Lindsey (Scunthorpe) waste processing facilities.

The company is also considering a further Doppstadt machine for its new site in Leeds, which scheduled to open in June.

Nutramulch processes wood and green waste raw materials into agricultural and landscaping compost, and also provides a delivery and spreading service for their agricultural customers.

As well as composting green waste, Nutramulch processes waste wood for the board manufacturers and also offers a growing and modern fleet of recycling plants for contract hire with operators throughout the UK.