WRAP launches MRF search toolkit
As part of its Online Recycling Information System (ORIS), the interactive map indicates where MRFs are situated and also explains what material streams particular sites accept, their through-put capacity and the output materials that they produce. The tool – along with the whole ORIS project – is intended to improve the communication of where sites such as MRFs, household and school recycling services are situated within local authorities.
Mike Falconer Hall, materials recycling programme manager at WRAP, said: “We're making this information freely available to all those involved with the collection, recovery and recycling of dry waste recyclables in response to a high level of demand by this industry for a comprehensive, easily accessible database.”
Poorly managed AWCs boost rat population, report claims
The National Rodent Survey 2007/08, the ninth annual report of rat population in the UK, found that the amount of rodents increased in 2007/08, despite having fallen the previous year. The survey, which received responses from 80% of the 422 local authorities in the UK, reported that there had been 500,000 complaints about rodents over the last twelve months and said that this had been made worse by areas that had not “fully embraced” or well enough managed alternate weekly collections.
The report said: “It also reinforces our major concerns over the progressive introduction of rodent control charges and the parallel shift away from area to individual premises treatment, together with the increasing accessability of attractive food sources through over-feeding of garden birds, littering and fly-tipping, poorly secured household waste and inadequately sealed compost bins.”
3NRG announce £22m autoclave for Bridgend
Irish-owned waste management company 3NRG has received the necessary regulatory licences to operate a 100,000 tonne-a-year capacity autoclave and pyrolysis facility in Bridgend, South Wales.
3NRG – which is part of Waterford-based FLI Environmental Group – claims it has become the “first in the UK to get the green light on municipal waste to clean energy plant” with the proposed development at its former landfill site at Tythegston, Bridgend. The £22 million mechanical heat treatment facility is set to use steam to treat residual waste, while recovering material for recycling and using pyrolysis to produce gas from the remaining biomass fraction for electricity generation.
Michael Geary, business development director at 3NRG, said: “The facility will provide a very competitive waste processing service for local authorities and private waste contractors in the South Wales region and will be of enormous benefit in helping them to meet their targets for diverting waste from landfill.”
SITA UK welcomes arc21 qualification
The contract – which is believed to be worth between £200 and £500 million – is intended to see the building of the first ever energy-from-waste and mechanical biological treatment facility within a region of Norther Ireland served by11 local authorities. SITA was shortlisted for the deal alongside five other bidders in January 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story). SITA is working in partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland, Von Roll Inova and two local companies Natural World Products (NWP) and construction company, Graham to bid for the 25 to 40 year waste treatment deal.
David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of SITA UK, said; “SITA UK has had a presence in Northern Ireland for over a decade and is the largest and most experienced recycling and waste management company in Northern Ireland.”
Imperial College signs construction waste pledge
Imperial College London claims to have become the first university in the UK to commit to halving the amount of construction waste it sends to landfill by 2012.
The College has signed up to the WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) voluntary agreement to reduce the amount of construction, demolition and excavation waste sent to landfill (see letsrecycle.com story). The College aims to reduce the amount of construction sent to landfill by reusing and recycling waste materials, developing guidelines for future construction projects that include working with materials that are renewable and long lasting, and designing buildings efficiently, so that the amount of materials used is reduced and less waste is generated.
Steve Howe, director of building projects at the College, said: “At the moment much construction waste comes from over-ordering materials and fabricating on site. With this new agreement we are now examining opportunities to fabricate off site and reduce waste by ordering smaller deliveries of materials, as well as reusing and recycling more.”
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