Residents urged to recycle at Halloween
From dishing out sweets without packaging to using recycled material in costume design, a number of UK councils are offering tips on how residents can remain environmentally friendly while still having a scream. Councils have highlighted that over a million pumpkins are sold during the Halloween festivities for carving but few are recycled and many are simply sent to landfill. Warwickshire, Gwynedd and Flintshire councils, among others, have urged residents to recycled pumpkins flesh for food or use them as a nitrogen rich ingredient to make home compost.
Cllr Martin Heatley, portfolio holder for the environment at Warwickshire County Council, said: “By minimizing food waste like pumpkin remains, residents can divert a huge amount of organic waste from landfill sites. When sent to landfill, the organic waste breaks down without oxygen and produces methane – a greenhouse gas. But when added to the compost bin, the waste breaks down aerobically, and almost no methane is produced, which is good news for the environment.”
Netregs recycling directory expands
The NetRegs Waste Directory has been expanded to include additional licensed sites, showing businesses their nearest facilities to recycle or legally dispose of their waste.
The site, www.netregs.gov.uk, identifies 3,169 Environment Agency licensed premises across the UK and lists which of 59 different types of waste each can take. The website identifies the closest sites on a map, as to where specific waste streams can be disposed of. An independent Government survey has recently identified the money-saving benefits of using NetRegs, finding that SMEs across the UK that subscribe to the free NetRegs' email alerts service are saving on average £2,615 per year.
Jamie Burton, of MJS construction, who uses the service, said: “The Netregs waste directory enables me to easily locate waste sites, as well as identify some of the other companies that provide a useful collection service.”
Network reuses 450,000 litres of paint
Community RePaint, which has 65 projects across the UK, saved paint worth £1.75 million in 2007, after recovering leftover ‘half-tins' of paint from civic amenities sites and end-of-range and discontinued, dented or donated tins from DIY retailers, manufacturers and decorators. The paint was then offered to local charities, community groups and individuals in social need to brighten up and their living and work environments. Last year the network, which is managed by Resource Futures and sponsored by Dulux, collected 235,000 litres of waste paint for reuse.
Mark Gregory, Community RePaint project manager, said “This is a fantastic performance by the network and a number of individual projects have contributed significantly to the figures. The results also evidence the hard work from a specific Lottery-funded programme, aimed at increasing material donated by householders, which, among other aspects, involved creating a new project website.”
Approval for £520m NLWA waste plans
Plans to “revolutionise” the way in which waste in North London is managed have been approved by the North London Waste Authority this week (October 29).
The Authority and its constituent boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest have agreed to pursue a new long-term approach to manage the estimated million tonnes of waste generated in north London every year. The Authority, which announced its bid for a record £520 million funding to support the deal earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story) is due to submit its Outline Business Case to Defra by today, which, if approved, will see the NLWA receive financial support to cover the cost of new waste facilities for the area to be built from 2012.
Cllr Clyde Loakes, chairman of the NLWA, said: “The NLWA is seeking a 21st century solution to managing waste in the area – one that doesn't rely on landfill and incineration. We recognise that by reducing the amount of waste disposed of through reducing, reusing, recycling and composting as much as possible we can keep waste disposal costs to a minimum.”
Midhurst residents offered free reusable bags
The partnership is providing free reusable shopping bag to the town's 2,300 households. The reusable jute bags are being issued as part of Midhurst's pledge to cut litter and waste being sent to landfill.
Stephen Morley of Midhurst council said: “Rather than use legislation to ban plastic bags, I invited businesses in Midhurst to contribute towards the cost of a reusable jute shopping bag that we would make available to every single household. The response was fantastic and the council are grateful to all the shops and businesses that have helped to make this possible.”
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