News in Brief

Brent votes to turn recycling compulsory

The scheme, which councillors believe will save the borough £615,000 in landfill taxes and disposal fees each year (see letsrecycle.com story), will emphasise the education and encouragement of local people, the council said. Prosecution will be only used as a last resort for those who ‘persistently and deliberately’ fail to use their recycling services.

“I’m really pleased we’ve made this decision to go-ahead and adopt compulsory recycling. This is about protecting the environment and cutting waste,” said Councillor Irwin Van Colle, Brent Council’s lead Member for Environment, Planning and Culture. “Compulsory recycling is aimed at the minority who don’t make any effort to use their green box at all.”

Thurtles launch commercial recycling service in East Anglia

A new recycling service will be brightening the streets of Norfolk and Suffolk from this month. Great Yarmouth-based and family-run W.T. Waste is launching a collection of mixed paper and cardboard from businesses in the counties – predominantly those in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

Dubbed ‘The Green Machine’, W.T. Waste’s newly-liveried collection vehicle will be collecting materials via a trade bag or wheeled bin service. Retailers including Arcadia Group and Whitbread have already signed up to the scheme via broker Severnside Recycling. Card and paper will be taken to the business’s transfer station in Great Yarmouth and loaded into roll on-offs provided by Norwich company M.W. White. W.T. Waste is using a 2001 DAF lorry with a Dennis body.

W.T. Waste’s owner Walter Thurtle said: “We want to make recycling fun and engage the public as much as possible. Much emphasis has been placed on domestic recycling, but now we are giving businesses a chance to do their bit for the environment. We want to get business recycling rates as high as the amazing rates achieved by Norfolk’s and Suffolk’s councils.”

Disposal officers to meet to discuss targets

NAWDO – the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers – is holding a general meeting on March 12 to discuss local authority targets and indicators.

The meeting to be held at the Local Government Association headquarters in London, will see presentations from the Environment Agency regarding the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, as well as Defra, which will discuss the new performance indicators for councils.

The primary network for senior waste managers in unitary and upper-tier local authorities, NAWDO has nearly 100 waste disposal authorities across England and Wales as members, all of whom are invited to attend next month’s meeting. Details of the meeting will be available on the NAWDO website – www.nawdo.org – in due course.

Choice move for Sarah Dumpleton

Choice Waste Management of Biggleswade has appointed Sarah Dumpleton as a buying representative for recyclable materials.

Sarah’s father Paul is well known within UK waste management circles having worked for SITA UK and now as materials director for Shanks. Ms Dumpleton, 23, said she was “delighted” to join Choice. On the job so far she told letsrecycle.com: “There is such a very competitive market for materials, especially plastics. I didn’t think it would be so hard to get business and that there was such a strong, competitive and well-developed market for material.”

On her background, she said: “I have known about recycling since I was little and was always taken to offices at recycling sites and got to know what it was about. I did a degree in international relations which included climate change and sustainability and it is good to see recycling for real. I think the environmental sector is expanding and offers young people real opportunities now and I hope to learn more about the sector.”

Garcia joins waste team at Navigant

Management consultants Navigant Consulting has appointed former Cleanaway waste chief Andrew Garcia to lead its growing environment, renewable energy & waste management team.

Navigant Consulting advises local authorities and other public bodies as well as the private sector, and Mr Garcia’s role will be to help it meet growing demand in this increasingly complex and important sector. He will particularly be involved in helping clients develop and implement deliverable solutions within the Private Finance Initiative and Public Private Partnership market.

Prior to his appointment at Navigant Consulting, Andrew headed leading waste management company Cleanaway UK’s integrated waste business, which spearheaded the company’s growth into the PFI/PPP sector, and managed a number of major projects including the development of the £8 million MRF at Rainham for the London Borough of Greenwich.

During his time at Cleanaway, Andrew grew its municipal order book from by over 40% in three years, steering it into the more sophisticated PFI and PPP sectors. He was also managing director of the construction services division at SIG plc, where he ran a number of the Group’s embryonic businesses and was responsible for developing a mergers and acquisitions team. In addition, he spent two years working as a consultant to the DTI.