News in Brief

Newly-extended recycling facility opens in West Sussex

Owned and operated by the TJ Group, the all-weather facility can sort up to 25,000 tonnes of waste from landfill a year, with up to 85% recycled.

A six-figure investment in the MRRF provided a new weighbridge, yard, stockpile area and office. Materials to be delivered or collected by vehicles include soil, rubble, brick, plasterboard, metals, wood, paper, glass, cardboard, cans and plastics.

An initial three jobs have been created with the enlarged site in addition to two full-time personnel. Licensed by the Environment Agency, the facility increases TJs geographical reach on the central South Coast of England by 20%, from Bournemouth in the west to Worthing and Brighton in the east, with the Guildford to the north. TJ employs 100 people and its core services are bulk haulage and material sorting.

John Gosling, operations director at TJ, headquartered near Fareham in Hampshire, said: The facility is very much geared up to meet the ongoing need for increased recycling of construction, skip, demolition as well as general house clearance waste, with the site open to all trade customers.

“We are continually improving our ability to recycle, working as a highly responsible industry towards zero landfill thats the Holy Grail for us. We anticipate demand from trade and domestic skip customers in and around Worthing, Pulborough, Petworth, Climping, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis and Billingshurst.

More than 10.5m plastic bottles recycledfrom Olympics

Coca Cola has revealed that more than 10.5 million plastic bottles were collected from London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games venues, and recycled into new bottles.

In anticipation of the Games, Coca Cola established the 15 million joint venture Continuum Recycling with Lincolnshire plastics recycler ECO Plastics, which helped boost ECOs recycled PET production capacity from 15,000 to 40,000 tonnes per year (see letsrecycle.com story).

Jon Woods, general manager, Coca-Cola Great Britain & Ireland, said: As the longest, continuous sponsor of the Olympic Movement, we knew that our sponsorship provided a one-off opportunity to accelerate many of our sustainability initiatives here in Great Britain. But we wanted to go even further than that and use London 2012 to encourage our suppliers, our customers and the people who enjoy our products to join us in adopting more sustainable behaviours.

Investing in sporting opportunities for young people, offering the widest range of drinks we have ever offered at an Olympic and Paralympic Games and developing a best practice waste and recycling system all contributed to making London 2012 our most sustainable sponsorship activation ever.

Thousands of litres of paint reused in Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire residents and community groups have collected over 15,000 litres of free paint in two years from the Community RePaint Nottinghamshire scheme at both Calverton and Worksop Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC).

Community RePaint Nottinghamshire, the scheme ran by Nottinghamshire County Council and Veolia Environmental Services, is part of a network of more than 60 community paint re-use projects across the UK.

Councillor Richard Butler chair of Nottinghamshire county councils Environment Committee commented: The Nottinghamshire County Council & Veolia Environmental Services Community RePaint scheme is a simple, local solution to the problem of waste paint.

Kevin Parker regional communications manager, Veolia Environmental Services, said: By reusing paint in our community we can bring colour to the homes of Nottinghamshire residents, and help reduce waste by preventing perfectly good paint from being disposed of.

Baby food pouch recycling scheme hits 250,000 mark

A baby food pouch recycling initiative launched by food manufacturer Ellas Kitchen and recycling firm Terracycle has seen more than 250,000 pouches diverted from landfill since the scheme began.

The initiative began in March 2010 after Ellas Kitchen decided to find a solution for its packaging waste, as, although it is recyclable, many councils in the UK do not accept mixed plastic in recycling collections.

The initiative, known as Ellas Kitchen Brigade, sees customers collect their baby food packaging, and postit to Terracycle, whereupon it is recycled. Postage paid labels are provided to the customers, who also receive rewards for their recyclables, and a charity donation is made for each piece of packaging received.

TerraCycle uses the waste baby food packaging to produce plastic products including garden benches, watering cans or waste bins. Waste material from Ellas Kitchens factories is also turned into lunch bags, pencil cases and place mats.

Sarah Bright, head of giving stuff back at Ellas Kitchen, said: We love to give stuff back at Ellas Kitchen so we are delighted that the Ellas Kitchen Brigade is proving so successful. As well as saving 250,000 used baby food pouches from landfill participants have also raised over 7,500 for some really worthy causes which is fantastic!

MEP backs recycling destinations charter

The Charter is a voluntary initiative to which local authorities in England and Northern Ireland can sign up to detailing where recycled materials are sent for processing.

Supporting the Charter, Ms Taylor MEP for Yorkshire and Humber, said: “While I am keen to see more recycling take place across the region, it is also the case that the public should know what happens to their recycling. There are too many horror stories about what does happen to our rubbish.

It is important that we can have the confidence that our recyclables are put to good use and dont end up in landfill. I am urging local councils across the region to sign up to the charter and play their part. I am pleased the Resource Association are fighting this campaign and am happy to be signed up to it.