Environmental social enterprises show biggest growth in sector
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Social Enterprises Data Report charts the growth of social enterprises across eight industry and trade sectors over the past year and claims that environment, recycling and renewables recorded the highest average growth (49.73%). However, despite the number of social enterprises in the sector almost doubling, the annual turnover for the sector remained among the lowest with an average turnover of £1.28 million – compared to the highest turnover for the health and social care sector, which had £4.24 million. The social enterprise in the environment, recycling and renewables sector with the highest growth was the National Community Wood Recycling Project (NCWRP), which recorded an average growth of 750.87%.
There are currently 350 social enterprises across the UK, representing a total annual turnover of £812 million, voluntarily submitted company information for the RBS SE100 index. The data shows that the top 100 social enterprises on the index grew on average by 78.93 per cent over the past year.
Sterecycle celebrates second year for Rotherham plant
The company has been operating the South Yorkshire site for two years and treats waste from several local authorities, including the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham Waste Partnership under an interim waste treatment contract. In addition, Sterecycle also uses the facility to treat local and commercial waste from the likes of Toyota Manufacturing UK and Doncaster's main shopping centre, Lakeside Village. Sterecycle stated that, to date, nearly 130,000 tonnes of waste has been treated through its autoclave facility, which has seen over 60% of this material diverted from landfill. Sterecycle announced in February 2010 that it had accrued £10 million in order to double the capacity of the Rotherham plant to 200,000 tonnes-a-year, with projected landfill diversion rates expected to be over 70% (see letsrecycle.com story).
Tom Shields, chief executive at Sterecycle, said: “We have now demonstrated that autoclaving is robust and through our operations at Rotherham, we have gained a considerable amount of understanding and processing experience which we will use to improve the facility through the expansion works, and for the development of future Sterecycle plants.”
Viridor disappointment at Portobello planning refusal
Waste management firm Viridor has expressed disappointment at Scottish Minister's decision to refuse planning permission for its proposed road-to-rail waste transfer station at Portobello, Edinburgh.
The £7 million proposal, which would be developed to the east of the Scottish capital, was blocked by City of Edinburgh councillors in September 2008 and earlier this week (June 9) the Scottish Government's directorate for planning and environmental appeals dismissed Viridor's appeal against the refusal. Viridor, which has developed a large presence in Scotland, had previously criticised the planning system in Scotland for stalling the Portobello project and plans for a £193 million energy-from-waste plant at Oxwellmains in Dunbar, which was also refused planning permission when voted on by East Lothian councillors in September 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting, Colin Paterson, Viridor's Scottish regional director, said: “Viridor is clearly disappointed with the decision by Scottish Ministers to refuse the road-to-rail waste transfer station. Whilst officials recognised the urgent need for new waste infrastructure and dismissed many points made by the objectors, it is frustrating that the visual impact of an industrial type building in an industrial location has ultimately led to the refusal.”
Vinyl flooring scheme commits to halving waste to landfill
The Recofloor initiative, which is administered by recycling firm Axion Consulting, has collected around 215 tonnes of vinyl flooring waste since its inception in January 2009 and joined the WRAP scheme in order to help bolster its efforts. The scheme was founded by flooring manufacturers Polyflor and Altro and currently has 220 members from across the flooring supply chain in both the UK and Ireland.
Welcoming the move to join the WRAP commitment, Recofloor project manager Jane Gardner says: “As an established scheme that has gained wide recognition throughout the industry, Recofloor is uniquely positioned to fulfill its commitment as a sector body to working towards the common goal to halve construction waste to landfill by 2012.”
Assembly Member welcomes scrapping of “bin taxes”
London Assembly Conservative group environment spokesman, Gareth Bacon, has voiced his support for communities secretary Eric Pickles announced the scrapping of so-called “bin taxes”.
Mr Pickles announced his support for incentive-based recycling schemes at an event in Windsor earlier this week (June 7) to launch the full roll-out of the American rewards-based recycling scheme RecycleBank across the Royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (see letsrecycle.com story). Mr Bacon claimed that the former government had proposed the introduction of taxation based on the amount of waste residents put out for collection and claimed that examples such as Bexley, Greenwich and Bromley in London showed that recycling performances could “dramatically improve” without punitive sanctions.
Mr Bacon said: “I am delighted to see the back of these unnecessary, unpopular and counter-productive bin tax plans. As has been shown in London Boroughs such as Bexley, you don't need bin taxes to improve recycling; you need to work with residents and make it easier for them to recycle.”
Register for free to comment