Dacorum borough council has introduced alternate weekly refuse and organic waste collections.
The scheme, which also collects dry recyclables weekly, has replaced the original weekly black sack collection over the past year. The council plans to take the scheme to all 57,000 households in the Hertfordshire borough by March 2005.
DEFRA awarded the council a grant worth almost 1 million to set up the infrastructure for the recycling scheme. Residents have been provided with two wheeled bins for refuse and green waste and a box for the recyclables.
Dacorum opted for the fortnightly scheme after conducting pilot scheme for various methods of collecting recyclables from the kerbside. In the trial area of the scheme the council has chosen 91% of the residents wanted to see the alternate fortnightly collection of refuse and garden waste continue.
The previous black sack collection, with an 'opt in' fortnightly dry recyclables collection, achieved a recycling rate of just 10%. In its pilot of the new fortnightly scheme, the council accomplished a recycling rate of 43%. It is now predicting that the borough-wide expansion of the fortnightly scheme will increase its recycling rate from 13% to 40%.
Recology launches wood polymer composite
A wood polymer composite product has been launched this week in the UK by Recology.
Using licensed Japanese technology, the Norfolk based company will manufacture the product from post-industrial polypropylene films and sawmill residues. The recycled wood polymer product was launched at Glee, the international garden and leisure exhibition. The company chose this forum because the product can be used in various outdoor furniture applications including as decking, seating, trellis and fencing.
Recology has received support from the Waste and Resources Action Programme's (WRAP) business development service. The organisation helped Recology find the 2 million investment it needed to launch the business and the product.
Niels Oleson, Founder of Recology, said: “WRAP were enthusiastic about this project from our first meeting. At a time when I was obtaining some daunting quotations from my accountants, lawyers and business advisors, the financial assistance from WRAP was a terrific help in propelling the new company forward.”
WRAP also part-funded the product through a testing and certification programme at the Building Research Establishment.
Firbank Recycling and Chiltern Wasteaway merge
The waste management companies Firbank Recycling and Chiltern Wasteaway have merged to form Dunstable Waste Group.
The new firm, based in Dunstable, will operate as Firbank-Chiltern supplying a full range of waste management services from heavy commercial waste to domestic skip hire.
A statement from the company explained: “Firbank and Chiltern were of similar size and their activities complementary with little business overlap. The merger doubles the size of the individual businesses reducing overheads to provide a basis for long term growth.”
The merged company handles around 80,000 tonnes of waste each year, recycling a wide range of materials. Firbank-Chiltern has claimed that it is already recycling 24% of its client's waste and has set a target to recycle 50% in two years.
Robert Firbank of the Dunstable Waste Group told letsrecycle: “We are in extremely exciting times for us. The company is looking to expand four-fold in size over the next few years.”
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