West Sussex expands HWRC booking system
West Sussex county council has announced that it will be expanding the booking system in place at part of its household waste and recycling centre (HWRC) network.
The ‘Book to Recycle’ system is already in place at Bognor Regis, Crawley, Horsham, Littlehampton, Shoreham-By-Sea, and Worthing.
It will now be extended to Billingshurst, Burgess Hill, East Grinstead, Midhurst, and Chichester Recycling Centres from February next year. Until then these sites can continue to be visited without making a booking.
Since the Book to Recycle scheme was introduced in 2021 over 1.8 million visits have been booked via the system.
Cllr Deborah Urquhart, West Sussex county council cabinet member for environment and climate change, said: “Ensuring a steady flow of customers at our centres means residents have more time to select the correct recycling container and staff have more time to offer recycling advice and assistance.
“This means materials can often be diverted from residual waste to more efficient recycling routes.”
Cheshire East to roll out chargeable garden waste
Cheshire East council is to roll out its new chargeable garden waste service next month.
Once garden waste collections pause on 18 December, residents will need to be signed up to the chargeable new service in order to have a garden waste collection.
Subscriptions cost £56 per garden bin, per year, with a 25% reduction in the fee available for those receiving qualifying benefits.
Councillor Mick Warren, chair of Cheshire East council’s environment and communities committee, said: ” So far, more than 33,000 households have signed up to the scheme and for those residents, we will continue to take their garden waste away as normal on their usual collection day.
“Residents can sign up to the annual scheme at any point in the year but will pay the same fee whether they sign up at the beginning of the year, part way through the year or only need a few collections.
Gap Group strikes deal with equipment trade association
The trade association for the equipment hire and events sectors, Hire Association Europe Event Hire Association has formed a partnership with waste management organisation GAP Group.
The partnership enables the association’s members to access a “wide range of value for money, practical waste management and recycling solutions as part of their membership”.
According to the association, given the diversity of the hire and events industries, “a very broad range of waste management and recycling solutions is needed, from food waste in the events sector to dealing with cable recycling, waste electrical equipment (WEEE) recycling, plastic and metal recycling, and F-gas removal and recycling solutions.”
Nigel Tomlinson, commercial director (Electrical waste) at GAP Group, said: “We’re really excited about this new alliance and are really looking forward to supporting the hire industry with all its waste requirements via HAE EHA.
“We received a multimillion-pound investment in 2021 supporting our ambitious plans to double in size within three years, so GAP Group now offers some of the world’s most advanced recycling technology. This means that customers can be assured that, no matter the substance, their waste will be dealt with in the most environmentally-friendly way.”
Merseyside community theatre waste project takes centre stage
Valley Community Theatre in Netherley, Liverpool, has been awarded £7977 to help deliver ‘Valley Vegheads’, a food growing and cookery skills project which it hopes will reduce food waste, increase composting and encourage food growing in the local community.
The money has come from the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority & Veolia Community Fund 2023/24.
Martin Ball, charity director at Valley Community Theatre, said: “We are using the funding to bring in an extra pair of hands. This means that we have more resource to help create a community kitchen garden at our premises on Childwall Valley Road, allowing us to run gardening activities and host community swap shops.
“Our recycling of waste products from the garden and cafe and our textiles ‘Swap Shop’ will serve as an education for all in reducing waste and will impact positively on the environment.”
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