News in Brief

Premier Waste acquires data shredding service

The purchase of the Shredderman service, which offered North East businesses a confidential shredding and data destruction for paper, DVDs and, audio and video tapes, will allow existing Premier customers to use the service. Premier intends to provide customers with secure locking bins and bags to hold confidential material for collection in enclosed vehicles, which will then be shredded to a size that meets legal requirements for data protection in an enclosed shredding facility. The Shredderman service also offers the destruction of DVD and CD data discs, as well as audio and video tapes.

Paul Littlefair, divisional managing director at Premier Waste, said: “Premier has been keen to expand its offering for business clients and as we've always maintained long term relationships with paper mills around the UK, we're pleased to have acquired the Shredderman service.”

Environment Agency issues Notts incinerator permit

The Environment Agency has decided to issue a Pollution Prevention & Control (PPC) Permit to Veolia Environment Services for its proposed incinerator in Nottinghamshire.

The £90 million energy recovery facility, which is set to be constructed at the Rufford Colliery in Rainworth, forms a key part of Nottinghamshire county council's 26-year long term waste management plans and is intended to treat 180,000 tonnes of residual waste annually. The 13 MW facility, which Veolia claims will generate enough energy to power 15,000 homes, is expected to be operational by 2011. The county council granted planning permission for the facility in January this year despite local opposition in the form of the People Against Incineration Network (PAIN) (see letsrecycle.com story).

Greg Broughton, environment manager for the Environment Agency said: “We have considered this application very carefully, and we are satisfied that the incinerator will not harm the environment or human health provided that it is operated in accordance with our permit.”

Lafarge merges its energy recovery businesses

The Birmingham based company has decided to operate the company entirely under the Sapphire Energy Recovery brand at headquarters in Staffordshire, removing the Glacier name. The new entity is set to be led by general manager Jamie Randall and comes after Lafarge Cement took sole ownership of Sapphire, which sources and processes used tyres for use as fuel in cement kilns, while the Glacier business was dedicated to sourcing other waste-derived fuels for the cement industry, as well as alternative raw materials for processing in kilns.

Mr Randall said: “We intend to use this development as a platform to move further upstream and work closer to the sources of waste than we have in the past. This will give us better long term resilience of supply and more control of processing or pre-treatment of materials where required.”

Welsh plastics recycling firm fined £17,000

Abertillery Magistrate's Court has handed a plastics recycling company a fine of almost £17,000 over abandoning waste at a business premises on the Crown Business Park in South Wales.

The court heard how PKRN Recycling of Gwent stopped trading in 2007 when it ran into financial difficulties and could not repair the machinery needed in order to recycle the plastic brought to the site. In addition, PKRN was not licensed to transfer or store waste but, despite this, the company continued to deposit waste inside the business unit and surrounding land. The company then left the site without removing any of the waste. Paul Cooper, director of PKRN, was fined a total of £16,000, £8,000 for each offence and ordered to pay £940.01 costs and the £15 victim surcharge.

Ashley Lansdown, environment officer at the Environment Agency Wales, said: “It is not acceptable for businesses to abandon their waste when they fall into financial difficulty, especially when they have profited from accepting the waste. As a business they have a legal duty of care to ensure the lawful re-use or disposal of their waste.”

Eco opens £350,000 Weymouth recycling depot

Dorset-based composting firm Eco Sustainable Solutions has opened a £350,000 organic waste recycling depot in Weymouth.

The company has said that up to 16,000 tonnes of green and wood waste will be handled annually at the state-of-the-art facility, which was built by Eco in partnership with Weymouth & Portland borough council and Dorset county council. Material collected at the site is set to be core shredded and then bulked up to be taken to its main site at Parley for further treatment. The Weymouth depot is set to act as a satellite facility for traders and local authorities in the southwest of the county and will also accept material under Eco's eight-year deal with Dorset county council.

Steve Harman, operations manager at Eco, said: “The depot features the latest technology and techniques and will play a key role in handling green waste and wood from the local area.”