Chefs join London campaign to reuse leftovers
The chefs, who include Gary Rhodes, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Oliver Rowe, have contributed the recipes to the Recycle for London awareness campaign with the aim of helping Londoners use the food they are most likely to dispose of, such as bread, meat, fish, rice and potatoes. The recipes are featured on the Recycle for London website, which will be updated with recipes and tips submitted by Londoners in the coming months. Mayor Boris Johnson, through the London Waste and Recycling Board, aims to spend £31 million over the next three years on projects to boost the conversion of food waste into an eco-fuel.
Mr Johnson said: “Londoners chuck away a mind-boggling amount of perfectly edible food, some of which could instead be used to make a great tasting meal. It is high time we treated that lonely dish of marooned mashed potato or plate of rice relegated to the back of the fridge with the respect it deserves.”
Schools claim waste savings with compaction systems
The Middleborough-based company installed a machine at St Mary's Preparatory School in Lincoln following the Spring Bank Holiday and the school claims to have reduced its landfilling costs by 50% in the following months. And, Wakefield Girls High School and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in West Yorkshire have also claimed to have seen a reduction in waste since installing compactors, enabling them to place material into one machine instead of 16 large wheelie bins.
Site manager at St Mary's, Andy Johnston, said: “We put the bags into the compactor and they come out as flat packs which take up much less bin space. We used to have two bins emptied three times a week but have been able to cut that down to one bin each visit, saving us half the cost.”
Yorkshire shoe chain handed £20,000 packaging fine
A Yorkshire chain of shoe shops has been fined £20,000 for breaching packaging waste regulations.
York-based Pavers Limited pleaded guilty at York Magistrates' Court to 12 offences relating to a period from January 1 2003 to January 31 2007, and asked for a further three offences to be taken into consideration. The company should have been registered with the Environment Agency and was obliged to recover and recycle a portion of its packaging waste under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations. Nigel Hamilton, prosecuting counsel for the Environment Agency, said Pavers' explanation for failing to comply with the packaging waste regulations was that it was “unaware” of their existence. By failing to register, Mr Hamilton said Pavers had avoided fees and other costs of at least £17,000.
In addition to the fine of £20,000, York Magistrates ordered the company to pay compensation to the Environment Agency of £4,204 to cover the unpaid registration fees, as well as full prosecution costs of £1,615.70. The firm was also ordered to pay a £15 victim surcharge.
Coventry takes order of four more Heil RCVs
The vehicles being supplied to the council by the Fife-based firm are Heil Powerlink 22m bodies fitted to a Mercedes Econic chassis, which incorporate lifts by Cheshire-based Terberg Matec. The Powerlink bodies have also been fitted with drainage kit and the latest weighing systems. Heil said that its full-cycle compaction mechanism produces less friction than conventional channeled compaction systems which ensures greater force is directed into the load. The company said reducing friction increases durability of materials and improves costs.
Chris Coyle, fleet and workshop manager at Coventry council, said, “Heil vehicles are very reliable and the Powerlink is a great product. Also, Heil's aftercare service and support is excellent. They are adaptable and keen to react to any situation that may arise, they pull out all the stops if there are any problems.”
WREN launches £10m landfill fund
A £10 million grant scheme drawn from Landfill Communities Fund money has been launched to help protect and revive some of the UK's most threatened wildlife habitats.
The scheme, which was launched by the presenter of BBC's 'Springwatch', Chris Packham, is run by not-for-profit environmental body WREN, which issues grants to bio-diversity projects using money from the landfill tax credits of Northamptonshire-based Waste Recycling Group. WREN's Biodiversity Action Fund has committed £10 million to biodiversity projects to help redress the balance of nature by expanding, recovering and conserving habitats. To be eligible for the funding, projects had to demonstrate how they would work towards meeting national, regional or local biodiversity targets set out in Biodiversity Action Plans, and had to be located within 10 miles of a landfill site.
Mr Packham said: “This is a fabulous scheme which puts substantial and much-needed sums of real money into real conservation and targets it at intelligent projects which seek to protect and enhance the UK's natural biodiversity – superb.”
Register for free to comment