News in Brief

A new recycling facility was opened in the borough of Waltham Forest last week, thanks to a 500,000 grant from the London Recycling Fund.

John Glover of Bywaters, Waltham Forest councilor David Blunt and the Mayor of Waltham Forest, Cllr Milton Martin, taking a look at one of the centre's storage bins.

The Leyton reuse and recycling centre, which has been developed through a partnership between Bywaters Recycling and Waste Management and the London borough of Waltham Forest, was officially opened on Wednesday.

Councillor David Blunt, cabinet member for environment, said: “The council is working really hard to try and improve the levels of recycling in the borough, but we need residents to participate. However, we need to provide the right facilities to make it simpler and more convenient to recycle rather than throw away. I think this new centre goes a long way towards achieving this for residents in the south of the borough.”

The centre collects a wide range of items for recycling including wood, scrap metal, mobile phones, bikes, engine oils and white goods.

Packaging and electrical compliance scheme Valpak has volunteered to take the lead in lobbying Europe over the Battery Directive.

The UK government has said that the Battery Directive will not be a priority during its presidency of the EU, with any movements forward set to take place during the Austrian presidency (see letsrecycle.com story).

Some members of the waste management industry are concerned that this will mean the Directive will be formulated without input from the UK, leading to a much more difficult task when it comes to adopting it into UK legislation.

Steve Gough, chief executive of Valpak, said: “With the WEEE Directive we didn't get our opinion across at a European level and we now have to work with what we have. I think we have all learned from that so we want to ensure that we are heard well in advance of the Directive becoming European law.”

Residents in Peterborough are being urged to recycle their old Yellow Pages phone directories following the delivery of the new copies.

In the UK a Yellow Pages Directory Recycling Scheme is run in partnership with over 93% of local authorities.

A survey conducted between April and May 2004 revealed that residents of East Anglia topped the poll with 67% of people saying they recycle their old Yellow Pages compared with just 51% nationally

Peterborough city council's waste and recycling officer Jacqui Warren said: “Thousands of new Yellow Pages are now being distributed throughout the area.

“All householders should simply place their old directories in their green recycling bin to prevent them from unnecessarily being taken to a landfill site,” she added.

Blackburn-based Neales Waste Management has been presented with a healthy and safety award at the National Business Awards.

The company received the prize Health and Safety Executive-sponsored from HSE North West regional director David Ashton at a gala ceremony hosted by Sky News presenter Adrienne Lawler.

The event was held at the Palace Hotel in Manchester before a gathering of over 200 leading business people and VIPs.

Judges were looking for an organisation with a good health and safety record that could best demonstrate that health and safety plays an integral role in its management processes, has its leaders, managers and employees fully engaged and, where appropriate, takes its policies into its supply and distribution chains.