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Biffa collects 400 tonnes of household WEEE
Municipal services firm Biffa has collected over 400 tonnes of small waste electrical and electronic items (WEEE) from households since the launch of its collection service just over three years ago.
First launched in Woking in December 2011, the initiative lets residents put out bags of small WEEE (such as hair dryers, MP3 players, toasters and irons) alongside their usual recycling or refuse containers on scheduled collection days.
Since Woking’s launch, a further 13 councils have introduced the service with Biffa. Records show that in the period from December 2011 to the end of February 2015, 404.33 tonnes of small WEEE had been collected.
Bagged WEEE is collected by Biffa crews as part of their normal rounds, placing them in underbody cages fitted to Biffa’s collection vehicles. The cages are then emptied into larger holding containers at Biffa’s depots and then transported to authorised WEEE reprocessors through Biffa’s compliance scheme, Transform.
Pete Dickson, Biffa Municipal’s commercial director, said: “Small WEEE collections at the kerbside are seen by local authorities as an easy win for them, for Biffa, and for residents.
“The service has high value as it’s an easy, intuitive way for residents to capture and recycle a difficult waste stream, and they respond accordingly.”
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Scottish levy sees reduction in bag usage
Scotland’s Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead has announced that four retailers have donated more than £1 million to charitable causes as a result of the single-use carrier bag charge, which came into effect six months ago.
The figure has been revealed following reports from retailers that single-use carrier bag usage has been reduced by more than 80% since the charge was introduced on October 20, 2014.
Mr Lochhead made the announcement at an Asda store in Elgin. Over the coming months, Zero Waste Scotland will collect data on carrier bag use and funds raised for good causes ahead of the first official figures being released later this year.
Iain Gulland, chief executive of Zero Waste Scotland, said: “Over the past six months, we’ve seen an incredible change to shopping habits in Scotland. Shoppers have embraced the 5p charge and rapidly reduced their consumption of single-use carrier bags more readily than we ever hoped.
“I’d like to thank all the founding signatories published today, to our Carrier Bag Commitment, and urge more retailers to join them. Initial feedback from signatories suggests that more than £1 million has been raised for good causes in Scotland and by embracing the 5p single-use bag charge, businesses and shoppers are helping reduce waste and repair the damage already done. We can all be proud of that.”
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Investment helps CK Group expand Melrose plant
A grant from Zero Waste Scotland to the CK Group, one of Europe’s largest buyers of recycled waste plastic and regrind will increase the company’s capacity to deal with scrap plastic through its processing plant based in Melrose, Scotland.
The company will use the grant to install a new large-scale plastic shredding machine. Purchased from Zerma, one of the leading manufacturers of size reduction machinery, investment in the new shredder is part of the company’s planned expansion and desire to process more recycled plastic in Scotland.
The plastic recycling facility in Melrose already has a range of technologies and processing machinery, and the new shredder will provide the ability to process larger sized plastics such as wheelie bins and wider diameters of plastic piping. It also incorporates metal detection and de-dusting equipment.
Adam Strafford, CK Group’s northern regional manager, said: “Our expansion in Scotland is focused towards encouraging waste management and plastic recycling companies, plastics manufacturers and other industries that produce of end of life plastic, redundant stock plastics and plastics produced during manufacturing processes to consider recycling. Now that we have larger machinery in place we can expand further and accept a wider range of plastics for recycling.”
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Grundon and Carbon8 take tanker delivery
Grundon Waste Management has invested over £200,000 in a new tanker and tractor unit which, for the first time, features dual branding with subsidiary company Carbon8 Aggregates.
The new vehicle is designed to carry flue gas treatment residues (FGT) from Energy from Waste (EfW) facilities and takes to the road just as Carbon8 celebrates transporting its 1,000th load of FGT to its facility at Brandon in Suffolk.
Stephen Roscoe, technical director for both companies, said: “Grundon’s investment in the new vehicle recognises the growing level of demand for Carbon8’s award-winning FGT treatment process.
“The decision to move to dual branding reflects the close links between our two companies and demonstrates how we are working together to bring pioneering technology to the waste management and recycling sector.”
At the Brandon plant, Carbon8 uses a patented process known as Accelerated Carbonation Technology (ACT) to recycle the FGT, permanently capturing the carbon dioxide and converting it into a lightweight carbon negative aggregate, known as Carbon8 Aggregate (C8A).
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