News in Brief

Viridor and Freightliner mark waste transport partnership

Representatives from both companies attended a ceremony at Longley Lane in Manchester, one of the sites developed and managed by Viridor Laing under its 25-year PFI-funded contract managing the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authoritys waste and recycling services. The ceremony saw locomotive 66597 being renamed as Viridor Express to celebrate the partnership between Freightliner and Viridor, a key part of which involves Freightliner transporting SRF by rail to the combined heat and power plant being developed by Viridor Laing in partnership with chemicals firm INEOS Chlor at Runcorn in Cheshire. Over the past two years, In the last two years. Freightliner has already moved over 900,000 tonnes of waste for Viridor in the Greater Manchester area, equivalent to removing 78,260 lorries from the UKs roads.

Mike Hellings, Viridors managing director, commented: The naming of this train marks yet another important milestone in the development of the Greater Manchester recycling and waste contract. By removing vehicles from the roads, as well as maximising resource efficiency across the region, we are ensuring that progress towards high levels of recycling and recovery for Greater Manchester is being kept on track.

Paul Smart, Freightliner Heavy Hauls managing director, added: The migration towards Combined Heat and Power is a significant environmental development in which the Greater Manchester recycling and waste contract has invested to provide two distinct benefits – reduction in landfill and production of energy.

Labour confirms shadow Defra team

Labour leader Ed Milliband has confirmed the full line-up of MPs and peers who will feature in the team shadowing the work of ministers in the Department for environment, food and rural affairs.

The announcement follows a shadow cabinet reshuffle earlier this month which saw Mary Creagh retain her place as shadow environment secretary, while former environment secretary Hilary Benn was handed the role of shadow communities and local government secretary (see letsrecycle.com story). Mr Millibands latest announcement means Ms Creagh will be joined in the shadow Defra team by former Defra minister Huw Irranca-Davies, Gavin Shuker, Fiona ODonnell and Lord Jim Knight. Jamie Reed, the MP whose responsibilities in the shadow Defra team formerly included waste and recycling, has been moved to the Department for health, and it is understood that Gavin Shuker, who is MP for Luton South, will take over that role.

Meanwhile, Mr Benns shadow Communities and Local Government team is rounded out by MPs Jack Dromey, Helen Jones, Roberta Blackman-Woods and Chris Williamson, as well as peers Lord Bill McKenzie and Lord (Sir Jeremy) Beecham.

William Tracey contracts Sunersol for WEEE collections

Scottish waste and recycling company William Tracey Group has contracted waste electrical and electronic (WEEE) company Sunersol to collect commercial WEEE on its behalf.

Yorkshire-based Sunersol will collect the material from businesses and local authorities throughout the UK, with a particular focus on Scotland. Under the partnership, Sunersol will provide William Tracey with livery-branded white box WEEE containers for collecting material. It will also allow the company to offer its customers collection and reprocessing of WEEE with fully auditable reports and billing. The collection of WEEE is often overlooked in Scotland due to the remoteness of many areas and the collaboration between William Tracey Group and Sunersol will create a direct way for businesses to recycle WEEE. Sunersol has recently secured contracts for 20,000 tonnes of WEEE, and earlier this year set its sights on becoming one of the UKs five largest WEEE reprocessors (see letsrecycle.com story).

Craig Thompson, managing director of Sunersol, said: We are delighted to have William Tracey on board and to work extensively with Scottish markets. William Tracey has grasped the concept of Sunersol from the outset and has embraced the forward thinking of the WEEE recycling industry.

Andrew OConnor from William Tracey added: Sunersol brings a new innovation to Scotland, simplifying the WEEE recycling process for businesses and Local Authorities. We have been very impressed with the online capabilities and being able to track loads online is a major step forward, as this has historically been a drawback of collecting WEEE.

US waste giant invests in RecycleBanks parent company

US waste giant Waste Management has made a strategic investment in Recycle Rewards, the company behind RecycleBank, the rewards-based recycling incentive scheme which operates in three English local authorities.

Under the investment, Waste Management plans to provide access to RecycleBanks scheme to all of its North American customer base which numbers nearly 20 million. The deal is also expected to make RecycleBank the leading online recycling rewards program in the US. RecycleBank schemes are currently in operation in 300 US and UK communities, with its UK presence including the London borough of Lambeth, Halton in Cheshire and Windsor & Maidenhead in Berkshire. While RecycleBank has won explicit support from the UK coalition government, recent months have seen the emergence of other incentive scheme models, including Nectar being used to reward paper recycling in Birmingham and a Local Green Points community recycling scheme in Ealing, London.

Waste Management joins a host of other investors in RecycleBank, including RRE Ventures, Sigma Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, The Westly Group, Generation Investment Management, Top Tier Capital Partners, Physic Ventures and Craton Equity Partners.

Jonathan Hsu, chief executive of RecycleBank, said: Our agreement with Waste Management gives us the resources and reach we need to expand our business and motivate and mobilise more people to make a collective, positive impact on the environment.

Northern Ireland achieves highest ever Q1 recycling rate

Northern Ireland sent 41.5% of its household waste for recycling and composting in the first three months of 2011/12, an improvement on the 39.7% recorded for the same period in 2010/11.

Figures published last week by the Northern Irish department for environment also reveal a decrease in the amount of both household (4.2% decline) and municipal (4% decline) waste generated between April and June 2011, compared to the figures recorded for April to June 2010. Whilst 126 kilograms of household waste arisings was generated per person in Northern Ireland, the amount varies across the three waste management groups through which Northern Irish councils manage their waste: NWRWMG had the highest household waste arisings per person at 130kg, followed by arc21 at 127kg, with SWaMP2008 producing the lowest per person amount at 122kg.

Commenting on the figures, environment minister Alex Attwood said: Biodegradable waste should not be ending up in landfill as it produces a double hit of greenhouse gases and leachate which harm the environment. I am therefore heartened to see both this reduction and the good progress made towards meeting our European commitments and targets. He added: This good news should be an impetus for more challenging targets. I plan to set them. I want this part of these islands to lead the way on emission and recycling targets. I hope to make announcements soon.