The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management has set up a new group to promote good practice in dealing with hazardous wastes at household waste recycling centres (HWRCs).
The HWRC working group is a joint venture with the National Household Hazardous Waste Forum and has received funding from Viridor.
It will make recommendations on the regulation and standards of household waste recycling centres and identify how new hazardous wastes from small businesses should be managed.
The group should also look at how the new hazardous waste regulations will impact on recycling centres, particularly at how hazardous wastes will need to be separately collected.
Commenting on the new group, the NHHWF manager Roland Arnison said: “There is a need to sort this out before the legislation is in place and we've established the new working group to help resolve the issues in good time.”
For the full consultation on changes to the Special Waste Regulations, see the Defra website.
Peterborough the place to be, investment agency claims
A development agency in Peterborough has launched a campaign to persuade more environmental businesses to move to the city.
The Greater Peterborough Investment Agency has written to 8,000 environment companies detailing the benefits of the area to the businesses.
The fact that there's already a large number of environment businesses working in the area should be a major attraction, the agency said. Gloria Milne, chief executive of the GPIA explained: “We already have more than 250 environment sector organisations that employ 4,500 people and generate annual turnover of 340 million.”
In addition, Peterborough is to get a new “innovation centre” to provide assistance for start-up environmental businesses while they find their feet. The centre is due to open in 2006 at the Peterborough Business Park and should be able to house 240 workers.
An agency spokesman said the centre will “provide an incubator for businesses starting off, before they branch out.”
REALISE IT Network gains funding for further six months
The REALISE IT Network, an IT reuse and recycling project in Central London, has been granted a six month extension by the European LIFE fund.
The Network is a partnership between Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster councils as well as the Corporation of London, the Cross River Partnership and Elephant Jobs.
As well as funding from the EU's LIFE environmental fund, the re-use group has benefited from the UK government's single regeneration budget.
The new burst of funding should allow the group to develop a best practice guide as well as continuing its programme of minimising IT waste and maximising community access to IT equipment.
The Network said it would be using its Building Cross Sectoral Partnerships event on August 18 to consult with its partners and users on effective ways to achieve the objectives for the project extension.
Waste Awareness Wales launches waste games
Two interactive games were launched yesterday at the Techniquest Science Discovery Centre in Cardiff Bay, bringing waste awareness to Welsh children.
Commissioned by Waste Awareness Wales, the games included “The Walk in the Wormery”, a large clear-plastic box full of composted green waste material and worms. Children can crawl through a darkened tunnel to see worms at work turning compost into soil.
The second game, “Check it Out” involves a mock-up of a supermarket checkout, which allows items to be scanned with a barcode scanner to display what they can be recycled into.
Commenting on the project, Waste Awareness Wales co-ordinator Brian Mayne said: “Waste Awareness Wales have commissioned and funded the creation of the games to teach children the important message of waste reduction, reuse and recycling in a fun and informative way. “
For more information on the new games visit www.techniquest.org.
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