News In Brief

Surrey tackles waste head on

The survey revealed that while people are willing to act with the environment in mind, the majority admitted they could do more.

Peter Martin, Surrey county council executive member for the environment, said: “Lots of authorities are campaigning on recycling, but as far as we're concerned in Surrey, that isn't enough. Recycling is essential, but we need people to reduce first and then reuse what they can before recycling. We need to focus on prevention rather than cure.”

Eco-bin developed to boost recycling

The eco-bin is made from recycled plastic, is 100% recyclable and has the capacity to compress plastic and cans maximising the space in the container.

The eco-bin was designed by Dr Chris Moon, who said: “The idea is to replace your normal rubbish bin with the eco-bin in order to encourage recycling and enable easier kerbside collection. Recent ‘Recycle for London' surveys revealed that 94 per cent of Londoners believe that recycling is important – yet only 21 per cent of their household rubbish is recycled. This is one third of what could be recycled.”

Scotland optimises can collecting operations

Glasgow-based waste company Can Do Recycling is streamlining its operations for processing steel packaging with the help of equipment from Corus.

Can Do collects cans throughout Scotland, and sends more than 150 tonnes of clean cans each month to the JR Adam CanRoute centre in Glasgow so they can be returned to Corus to be recycled into new steel products.

Corus supplied Can-Do with new equipment to help it sort the steel packaging its existing equipment became unreliable,

Jim Sinclair, managing director of Can Do, said: “With Corus' help in supplying a piece of vital conveying equipment, we are now able to run a more efficient service and actively seek out more sources of steel packaging material to be recycled.”

River recycling popular in the south west

A partnership scheme, set up between Bath and North East Somerset council and British Waterways to increase recycling rates along the waterside is proving ‘very popular' according to cabinet member for customer services, councillor Charles Gerrish.

Recycling compounds taking newspapers, glass, cans and plastic bottles have been installed for waterway users and boat dwellers who live on the canal . The bins are being serviced by ECT recycling.

Cllr Gerrish said: “Bath and North East Somerset council are the first in the country to work with British Waterways to offer recycling facilities along the Kennet and Avon canal. So far, they appear to have proved very popular with visitors and boat dwellers.”

FTA celebrates online networking forum

The Freight Transport Association has established a web-based discussion group to provide information and help for transport managers and others involved in waste management.

The Waste Network has been trialled over the last six months to help develop solutions to common problems regarding the transport element of waste operations.

Mark Forster, group fleet compliance manager for SITA and board manager for the network said: ‘The waste forum is now celebrating its first anniversary and its success has in no small part been as a result of FTA providing an ideal platform for colleagues in the sector to network and openly discuss common issues, sharing ideas and experiences in a relaxed and friendly environment.”