News in brief

MPs approves Philip Dilley as EA chair

The Efra Committee confirmed its approval of the appointment after questioning Mr Dilley on his suitability for the role last week (July 15).

Mr Dilley, former chair of the Arup Group, will succeed Lord Smith of Finsbury in the 100,000-a-year post from September 2014.

He will spend two to three days a week as chair of the Agency, which employs around 10,600 staff and is at the frontline of environmental and waste regulation.

Efra Committee chair, Miss Anne McIntosh, said: We are satisfied that Philip Dilley has the professional competence and personal independence required for the post of Chair of the Environment Agency. We wish Mr Dilley every success in his new post.

Viridor to partially close Sheffield landfill

Waste management firm Viridor has confirmed the partial closure of its Parkwood landfill site in Sheffield from August 1 2014.

The site, which was acquired by Viridor from Parkwood Holdings in 2002, will close due to increasing costs from landfill tax and the increasing availability of recycling and energy recovery services.

However, in order to complete the restoration of the site in time with the revised planning, it will continue to accept inert material such as processed rubble and excavated earth. Full closure is scheduled to take place in 2018.

Meanwhile, residual waste from Parkwood will be diverted to Viridors energy-from-waste plant in Runcorn, or its landfill site in Erin, near Chesterfield.

Ian Morrish, Viridors landfill energy director, said: We are working very hard to avoid compulsory redundancies and will be seeking to redeploy existing staff into other areas of the business, where possible.

Sainsburys food waste to power store

Biffa and Sainsburys have unveiled plans to power the supermarket giants Cannock-based store solely using food waste.

The waste management firm will link up its advanced anaerobic digestion facilities to the store, with electricity generated using food waste from Sainsburys stores across the UK.

Any food waste unsuitable for donations or animal feed is already sent to Biffas AD network, while remaining food waste collected from Sainsburys supermarkets around the UK are returned to Biffas Cannock facility.

Electricity for Sainsburys Cannock store is directly supplied to the supermarket via a 1.5km long electricity cable. The new power supply built in partnership with Biffa – means the Cannock store will come off the National Grid for day to day electricity consumption.

Jeff Anderson, managing director of Biffas I&C division, said: Biffa has provided Sainsburys with a food collection and processing service for many years. By converting food waste to renewable energy demonstrates our commitment to innovation and the environment.

Hard plastic recycling launched in Ealing

Hard plastics, including garden furniture and childrens toys, can now be recycled in Ealing.

Ealing council launched its new hard plastic recycling service at the Greenford reuse and recycling centre, which aims to impact on the boroughs 50% recycling target.

Other materials that are included in the new service are garden furniture, buckets and flower pots, bowls, storage boxes and plastic coat hangers.

Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for environment and transport said: This is just one of the many things that the council is doing to help residents to recycle even more. It is fantastic to see this new service available and I look forward to seeing its impact on the boroughs 50% recycling target.

Social venture eyes textile recycling in Cheshire

A newly-founded social enterprise in Blacon, Chester is hoping to put funds back into the community through the collection of used clothing and textiles with plans to take the service countywide if it proves successful.

4TP (40p), founded by Brian McManus, vows to return 40 pence gained from the sale of each kilo of used clothing back to the community through the creation of jobs for local people as well as charitable projects.

At present, it is run on a voluntary basis using donated textile banks. It is hoped that the volunteers will be able to secure paid employment with the organisation in the future.

Two textile banks have been placed in pub car parks and have been collecting material for a period of six weeks, with half a tonne of material collected so far. Two more are to be rolled out in the near future with up to 24 more planned, once suitable locations have been agreed.

Commenting on the service Mr McManus said: We have an agreement in place of 50p per kilo or 500 per tonne [of clothing sold]. That means that 10p per kilo, or 100 per tonne, is donated to the LIAM Foundation because it owns some of the intellectual property which will help if achieve its objectives. The 40p will be used to cover the costs of delivering the service and reinvesting funds back into the community.