News in Brief

Tanzanian visitors were shown the facilities at Viridor Beddington

A delegation from Tanzania has visited Viridor's waste management facility at Beddington, near Croydon, to discover more about the UK’s waste and resource management industry.

The visit took place at the request of the Tanzanian Minister of Environment, Professor Mark Mwandosya, and was arranged by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Environmental Services Association. The tour took in the site's green waste composting facility, mechanical and biological treatment plant (MBT), and landfill gas power plant, as well as the skip waste recycling facility.

Mike Stafford, regional operations manager for Viridor South East, said: “We very much welcomed the opportunity to share our knowledge and expertise with Professor Mwandosya's team. Viridor is constantly looking at ways to improve the environment through sustainable waste management and by using new technologies in waste treatment and recovery.”

Children from Wimborne First School at the compost awareness event

Dorset composting firm New Earth Solutions staged a children's activity and tree planting event at the National Trust’s Kingston Lacy Estate in Wimbourne yesterday, as part of this week's Compost Awareness Week.

A group of 30 children from Wimborne First School were invited to learn about climate change and the impact of their actions on the environment. They also planted individual Field Maple seeds in a recycled pot to be planted as saplings in the Autumn.

New Earth contracts director Peter Mills said: “The process of reducing methane and other harmful greenhouse emissions through the diversion of waste from landfill is inextricably connected to the safeguarding and protection of our historic buildings, countryside and quality of life. We are grateful to the National Trust for allowing us to explore some of these key messages with them, and quite literally on their doorstep.”

Cherwell's travelling waste classroom has helped spread the recycling message

Cherwell district council is continuing its Recycling Roadshow with a visit to Kidlington on Saturday, as the council revealed local recycling rates are at nearly 45%.

A travelling classroom called the “Wild Waste Bus” will bring the recycling message to local school children, offering ideas and information on how to reduce waste in the home. Cherwell residents will also be able to pick up free recycling boxes and subsidised blue recycling bins.

Cherwell's portfolio holder for the environment, Cllr Kieron Mallon explained: “Roadshows like this one have proved popular by giving residents a chance to collect new recycling boxes or bins or get information or advice about the scheme without having to travel far. I hope as many Kidlington residents as possible will get along.”

A new firm has been launched in London to market new waste and recycling technologies.

Intellectual property marketing specialist IP Group plc has invested 2 million in a subsidiary called Modern Waste, which will focus on sensing, monitoring and control technologies in the waste arena. The technologies will be sourced from universities and industry and capitalise on the need to increasingly divert waste from landfill.

Modern Waste executive chairman John Shepherd said: “We are going to try to help people to extract more value out of waste than they currently do through new and novel technologies.”

The new A 904C HD Litronic hard at work at P Farrow & Sons, Swinton

Scrap metal firm P Farrow & Sons of Swinton, Yorkshire, has taken delivery of a new Liebherr materials handler.

The A 904C HD Litronic is now hard at work for the family-owned company, which takes in around 300 tonnes of ferrous and non-ferrous metals each week from around Yorkshire, sorting, shearing and baling for onward sale to merchants throughout the north of England.

Jack Farrow said: “We had seen Liebherr machines at work on other metals processing sites and been impressed with their performance, and we were also well aware of Liebherr’s good reputation. This is why we chose to buy our first one and we are very pleased with it.”