Bucks awards recycling centre contract
The deal will involve the construction of a 15,000 tonnes-a-year facility, at Aston Clinton in the east of the county. Work on the site is due to commence on January 5 2009 and is expected to take six months to complete. The new recycling centre, which will also accept trade waste, will enable Buckinghamshire residents to recycle a wide range of materials from paper and card, through to tyres, batteries, fluorescent tubes, textiles and garden waste. The council hopes the new facility will help to alleviate the current strain placed on its established facility at Rabans Lane in Aylesbury.
Councillor Martin Tett, cabinet member for strategic planning and waste, said: “The construction of the Aston Clinton household waste and recycling centre is going to make a significant difference in the amount of waste we are able to recycle.”
Wiltshire issues collection calendars
The calendars show Wiltshire residents when Black Box recycling collections take place, how they are affected by Bank Holidays and what can be recycled in them, as well as showing the location of household recycling centres in the county. In addition to the calendars, the county is also producing 9,000 fridge magnets made from recycled material to remind people what they can put in their kerbside box and where they can get information on recycling. The magnets will be distributed to “key routes” which have been identified as those where Black Boxes are being used but are not being filled as much as hoped.
Andy Conn, waste services manager at Wiltshire county council, said: “The routes that we have identified are those where people are already doing some recycling. National studies have shown that these groups of people are willing to recycle more if you give them the means and the information.”
Bradford steel firm fined £27,000 over packaging offences
Bradford Magistrates' Court has fined Bradford-based steel processing and distribution company Barrett Steel Limited £27,000 after the firm admitted pleaded guilty to nine packaging waste offences.
The company was obliged to register with the Environment Agency and recover and recycle a portion of its packaging waste, as well as filing a certificate at the end of each year to confirm it had met these obligations. However, Barrett – which is a holding company for a large group of companies that import, treat and sell steel – failed to register, avoiding Packaging Recovery Note costs of £7,086 and registration fees of £9,594. The company was also ordered to pay compensation to the Environment Agency of £9,594 to cover the unpaid registration fees, as well as prosecution costs of £1,778 and a £15 Victim Surcharge.
The magistrates gave credit to Barrett for an early guilty plea and accepted its mitigation that the company had co-operated with the Environment Agency. The company's solicitor told the bench the offences were a technical breach “due to an honest mistake of law”.
Charity cuts costs with new baling equipment
The Welsh not-for-profit charity runs kerbside collections for mixed plastic – PET, drinks bottles, film and food containers – as part of a joint venture with Newport county council. The charity had previously baled the mixed plastic it accumulated into 200kg bales which were collected three times a week. However, it decided to invest in an IPS 2-Ram baler from American firm IPS, through its UK agent Slough-based Jarshire Limited, after the material volume using its previous machinery reached capacity.
The installation of the new baler means the company can now produce bales of 600kg, reducing the amount of bales it produces per week from 30 to 10, with a resulting reduction in transportation costs and emissions.
Defra launches ‘Environment in Your Pocket' 2008
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has launched the 2008 edition of ‘The Environment in Your Pocket'.
The twelfth edition of the annual National Statistics publication includes information on environmental themes such as air quality, waste and recycling, land, coastal and marine waters, radioactivity, wildlife and inland water, with the main focus of this year's edition being climate change – with a larger section devoted to topics on the subject. The booklet covers almost 60 key data series and focuses on providing trends over time, including performance against quantified targets and commitments set at the national and international level, as well as including several environmental indicators of sustainable development.
Despite its title, the annual has been published in a larger format than usual and is also available online at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/eiyp/index.htm where it links to more detailed information regarding the topics it covers.
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