News in brief

Recycling equipment supplier HSM has released an invitation to its first open day for companies on January 20, 2004 at its headquarters near Cannock.

Planned events for the day include demonstrations of various different balers and bailing presses. The machinery on show will include a range of vertical balers baling cardboard, plastic, packaging and paper and a horizontal baling press, which will be baling tyres, cardboard, slab waste, plastic bottles, foams and plastic packaging waste.

There will be a drum crusher and a high capacity paper shredder which will be shredding yellow pages and lever arch folders. Equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar will also be holding demonstrations at the open day.

Ian Pearson said: “At an exhibition you are greeted by men in suits telling you how good the machinery is but we are going to let people come to a simulated a working environment to see for themselves. We want to make it as informal and friendly as possible.”

He added that the open day is suitable for a range of people involved in the recycling industry including local authority recycling officers, waste management company sales and operation managers, waste paper mills and plastics recyclers.

Companies interested in attending this event please contact Ian Pearson on 07816 554969 for more information.

Redditch expands refuse collection fleet

Redditch borough council has taken delivery of six Variopress vehicles from Faun for residual waste and kerbside recycling collections.

One of Redditch's new trucks (top) displaying its promotional message

Mounted on Dennis II chassis, the six 22 cubic metre vehicles have been fitted with Zoeller Rotary lifters, a Faun ACTIVIT on-board weighing system and a flat screen colour camera system.

Redditch has been able to use recycling campaign imagery designed by Worcestershire county council on the vehicles' smooth sides.

Liz Williams, waste services manager for Redditch council, said: “It struck me that a smooth sided vehicle could be used as a mobile bill board. This could be used by the council to get their message across.”

Worcestershire county council's waste minimisation officer, Carol Trehearn, said: “We wanted to give the message that recycling is modern, clean and easy – and we think the imagery for our kerbside recycling reflects this.”

160,000 Reload fund calls for more applications

European Metals Recycling is encouraging more councils to submit applications to its 160,000 “Reload Fund”.

The fund was launched in October (see letsrecycle.com story) and uses revenue from the sale of Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs). It is aimed at helping local authorities in England and Wales meet their recycling targets by extracting more metals from the waste stream.

Colin Iles, managing director of EMR, said: “With just two or three weeks left before the closing date we would encourage any local authority who meets the criteria to submit an application.”

To apply for the fund, councils should submit a business plan for up to three years with two separate categories for small and large projects and the deadline for applications is the end of January. To request an application form, please email: info@emrltd.com.