News in brief

Plastic bottle recycling firm secures 6m investment

Shareholders Ludgate Environmental Fund and Robecco SAM Private Equity have both provided funding capital, while the firms debt provider, Close Brothers, has provided additional working capital facilities to support sales revenues.

Managing director of ECO Plastics, Jonathan Short, said: ECO Plastics is now ready to tackle another period of rapid growth. We have made huge progress over the last three years and this investment leaves us ideally positioned to continue to develop our state-of-the-art facilities and to take advantage of any other expansion opportunities that arise.

The company said its Hemswell site is one of the largest in the world and is capable of processing 150,000 tonnes of mixed plastics each year, including 40,000 tonnes of bottle-grade rPET pellet.

The company also secured 24 million funding in July 2011 to finance a venture with Coca-Cola Enterprises it said doubled the UKs rPET production. It then secured a 1.5 million loan from WRAP in February 2012 to expand its rigid plastic sorting facilities.

Recycled wood in Selfridges Christmas display

St Albans Wood Recycling has provided material for a Christmas window display featuring a wooden sledge in Selfridges flagship London store.

The not-for-profit enterprise, set up in 2010 by Geoff Deans, was found online by the department store and asked to provide the wood products for the display, which runs until Christmas Eve.

Former city worker Mr Deans, 48, said: We were able to provide old joists, four by twos, floorboards and pallets among others and were really pleased with the results, along with Selfridges.

James Barnett, Selfridges windows production co-ordinator, said: The reclaimed timber we have used from St Albans Wood Recycling works really well to create the overall rustic effect we wanted to achieve.

The Hertfordshire enterprise collects waste wood from the construction industry and sells it back to the community from its on-site shop as furniture or other products.

Organic waste firms agree partnership

Organic waste firms from the UK and New Zealand have come together to launch an independent, UK-based organisation for producing tunnel and IVC composting operations.

The UKs Bio Watt Engineering Limited (BWE) and NZs HotRot Organic Solutions Limited have made a commercial agreement they say will help expand large scale organic waste treatment projects in the UK and Ireland.

BWE chief executive, James Lloyd, said: This agreement with HotRot will develop composting operations in the UK and Eire, whilst provides continuity and a single point of contact for new HotRot composting projects. Our relationship with HotRot and the strong pipeline of specialist composting projects is a cornerstone for the rapid growth of BioWatt in the UK.

BWE, part of the BioWatt Group, provides specialist engineering and development services to the organic waste industry, while HotRot provides composting technology to divert difficult organic waste streams from landfill.

M&S launches free clothes recycling service

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is expanding its free clothes recycling service to UK businesses next year, enabling employees to get drop off old clothes in return for M&S money-off vouchers.

Oxfam will collect the clothing including old uniforms, corporate workwear and any other textiles from M&S Shwop Drop boxes in workplaces and re-sell, re-use or recycle the material as part of the Shwop at Work campaign to raise money to fight global poverty. Oxfam said nothing will go to landfill.

M&S will provide the free deposit boxes and promotional material to businesses and is working with Business in the Community (BITC) to promote the campaign to 850 member companies and 3,800 members of the BITCs May Day Network.

Adam Elman, head of Plan A delivery at Marks & Spencer, said: There’s no excuse for sending textiles to landfill and that’s why we’re doing everything we can to make it easy for people to recycle with Oxfam.

The Shwopping campaign originally launched in M&S stores in April 2012.

PHOTO: Joanna Lumley is supporting M&S and Oxfams free Shwop Drop clothes recycling campaign.

Recycling staff raise 205 during Movember

Staff at recycling and waste management firm Recycling Lives raised 250 for mens health charities last month by growing moustaches as part of the Movember campaign.

Across the firms Lancashire sites as many as 11 staff took part in the charity drive before shaving off their facial hair attempts at the end of November.

Marketing manager Adam Ainscough commented: Were all really pleased with the way things went in Movember, and were proud to be able to donate 205 to the good causes that the initiative supports. Dont tell our wives, but I reckon well be back at it next year!

Recycling Lives is a business and charity which provides accommodation, education, training and work experience to homeless and unemployed individuals in order to help them back into full-time work.

Lord de Mauley visits growing recycling firm

Recycling Minister Lord de Mauley visited a Canning Town recycling firm last week, which has grown from a family business with three staff to a company with a 4 million a year turnover.

Established in 1985, Lawrence M Barry (LMB) Clothes Recycling Centre now employs 170 staff, works with partners across the globe and sorts up to 200 tonnes of clothing, which is exported for re-use in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

LMB was the first recycling and waste company to win the Queens Award for Export Achievement in 1997.

Lord de Mauley commented: In the 25 years since LMB started trading, waste has become an increasingly valuable commodity and the business has gone from strength to strength. Its more proof that sustainability does not just make environmental sense, it also makes excellent business sense.