Recycling display at Milton Keynes theme park
It has provided education resources for a new “Recycling Area” within a new attraction at Gulliver's World Theme Park called Eco-Park. The display documents the life of steel packaging materials through to the recycling of steel cans into new steel products. Milton Keynes council itself has also provided displays showing how its materials recycling facility sorts recyclable materials, as well as other exhibits showing the lifecycle of recycled paper, glass and plastic.
Holly Mills, waste education officer at Milton Keynes council, said: “We are very grateful to Corus for providing the display board, which will help educate the theme park visitors and hopefully build upon our already successful 36% recycling rate.”
50th primary joins waste education scheme
Belvidere Primary School in Shrewsbury has become the 50th primary school to join Shropshire county council's Waste Education Support Programme.
The initiative, run by the county council since January 2003, helps schools to reduce the amount of rubbish they produce and throw away through practical curriculum-linked support. Schools on the programme have achieved reductions in waste of between 20% and 75%. As well as 50 primary schools, 16 secondary schools are part of the programme.
Sue Jelleyman, waste education officer with the Shropshire Waste Partnership, said: “Through WESP we are now working with more than 60 primary and secondary schools to help them reduce the amount of rubbish they throw away, both by recycling more and also by adopting simple ways of producing less waste in the first place. WESP also supports schools that are working towards Eco-Schools status and who are addressing the National Sustainable Schools Framework.”
Middlesbrough recycling showcase for Abitibi
The half-day event gave elected members, portfolio holders, heads of department and others from neighbouring local authorities a first-hand view of how Middlesbrough tackles its recycling needs. Abitibi-Consolidated, which has provided a kerbside collection service for the council for six years, demonstrated source-separated collections and discussed material quality issues before showing guests around its Teesside transfer station, which has recently been awarded aggregate centre status by aluminium reprocessor Novelis Recycling.
Commenting on the event, business development and planning manager Mandy Kelly said: “We've received a certificate of quality from Novelis to consolidate our aluminium aggregation centre status and demonstrated our commitment to the Tees Valley by significant investment in premises, plant and equipment, vehicles, systems and staff. The operation provides a great showcase for neighbouring authorities faced with similar recycling and waste management issues,” she added.
Medway residents to recycle cartons
Medway council is offering residents collection facilities for drinks cartons, with support from the packaging manufacturer Tetra Pak.
Collection bins have been set up at five locations around the borough under a two-year trial scheme. If successful, the scheme will be rolled out further. Medway council's portfolio holder for front line services, Cllr Phil Filmer, said: “This is another step in the right direction to encourage everyone in Medway to recycle more of their waste.”
Tetra Pak environmental manager Richard Hands said: “We and our industry partners are committed to increasing the level of carton recycling in the UK with the aim of reaching a national network of carton collection by the end of 2008. Our work with Medway Council takes us and households in the area one step closer to achieving that.”
Infant school pupils design re-usable bags
Pupils Aliyah Yousaf, six, Saran Sritharan, seven, Yusaf Mahmood, seven, and Jennika Vadher, eight, from Roe Green Infant School, entered the bag design into the London Schools Environment Awards earlier this year. Their design has now been put into production, for recycling bags being given away at events aiming to encourage shoppers to re-use bags, rather than taking new plastic carriers.
Roe Green Infant School teacher, Denise Delalande, said the idea for the bags stemmed from an exercise she did with her class to find out what happened to plastic bags. She explained: “We were really disturbed to find out that most of the plastic bags recycled by supermarkets end up in China and we didn't want to be part of shifting the problem rather than solving it. The recycling bags have gone like hot cakes.”
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