News in Brief

Yellow Pages recycled for school arts competition

The Big Yellow Pages Art Competition invites schoolchildren to create artworks using old Yellow Pages directories and their covers before they are taken away by the local authority in the area for recycling into animal bedding, cardboard, egg boxes, packaging and newsprint.

The winning school receives a £1,000 prize to spend as they want, with this year's six finalists including a life-size nativity scene, a dress and matching umbrella, a magical car, a tall pair of giraffes, a tropical mermaid, and a pair of birds. The six finalists in this year's competition have been chosen by Five TV's children's presenter, Naomi Wilkinson.

There is an online public vote at www.yellow-woods.co.uk from November 25 to December 9 2009, with winners set to be announced in January 2010.

The competition forms part of the annual Yellow Woods Challenge, which is run by Yellow Pages working with the Woodland Trust and UK local authorities.

For every pound Yellow Pages awards to schools in cash prizes, a matching pound is donated to the Woodland Trust – up to a maximum of £88,418 for 2009.

Harrow signs Viridor MRF contract

The London borough of Harrow has a signed a contract to double the amount of material it sends to waste management firm Viridor's materials recycling facility at Crayford in Kent.

Harrow council hopes that the deal, which runs to 2012 and covers 18,000 tonnes of dry recyclable material each year, will help boost its 44% recycling rate. Viridor, which will sort and then send the material for reprocessing, said it was “delighted” with the deal and said the new contract offered “very competitive prices” for the London council.

Speaking on behalf of the council, councillor Susan Hall said: “Viridor is providing us with an excellent service which helps us increase the amount of recovered materials, cut down waste disposal costs and prevent valuable resources being buried needlessly in the ground.”

New Earth appoints ex-WRG manager

Mr Brooke, who was previously in charge of Northamptonshire-based Waste Recycling Group's national local authority business, has 10 years experience in the sector and his role will see him become responsible for tendering for local authority contracts. Following Mr Brooke's appointment, Peter Mills moves to become development director where he will concentrate on the expansion of the New Earth network of waste facilities.

Chris Cox, managing director of New Earth, said: “Richard's arrival further strengthens the New Earth team and crucially will help us to continue rolling out our ambitious growth plans. We are particularly excited about upcoming local authority tendering opportunities and are seeking to expand our bid team under Richard's direction.”

Furniture reuse to feature on Tonight special

Furniture reuse is set to appear on ITV's ‘Tonight' programme tomorrow (November 27) in a special on second-hand recycled furniture and goods.

The `Tonight' programme has enlisted the interior designer Oliver Heath to completely furnish the home of a Brighton-based family with a budget of £500, and aims to show viewers how a home can be furnished without buying new furniture, while highlighting the amount of re-usable furniture disposed of each year. Ahead of the programme, the Furniture Reuse Network (FRN) – the umbrella organisation representing furniture re-use groups – claimed that the number of reused items saved from landfill and incineration could increase from around two million items to over five million items per year through changes in local authority practices, improved communication and engagement with community furniture reuse organisations.

In a statement, the FRN said: “In the UK, householders throw away over 30,000 items of furniture per day; well over a third of this `waste' can be re-used and would benefit people in great economic need. Only a small percentage is currently saved from landfill or incineration by the work of furniture reuse organisations.”

European Commission blasts “poor implementation” of waste law

The European Commission has published two reports which highlight that waste laws are being “poorly implement and enforced” in many Member States of the European Union.

The reports claim that Member States are particularly poor on the implementation and enforcement of the Waste Framework Directive, Landfill Directive and the Waste Shipment Regulation. The Commission claim that, in many cases, this is because waste treatment infrastructure is missing or waste is not being collected correctly. Furthermore, the reports indicate that Members which have joined the EU since 2004 are “particularly problematic” and are relying heavily on landfill with little infrastructure or behavioural change in place.

Stavros Dimas, environment commissioner, said: “Proper implementation of waste legislation is vital for the protection of our environment and health. Having legislation in place is not enough: the rules have to work in practice. Unfortunately, insufficient importance is attached to the enforcement of waste laws.”