News in Brief

Cllr Richard Thomas of Southwark council demonstrates a wormery

Residents in the London borough of Southwark are being offered subsidised wormeries to compost their food at home.

The pilot scheme will make available 250 wormeries for 5 each for properties with gardens. It is being run by with voluntary sector group CRISP, with the wooden wormeries made by homeless people from the charity St Mungo's.

The council said worms reduce organic kitchen waste by 80% in volume. Cllr Richard Thomas, Southwark council's executive member for environment and transport, said: “Around one fifth of household waste is kitchen waste. Wormeries are a really efficient way of turning this waste into a useful product.”

Environmental consultancy SLR has won a three-year contract to advise the Greater London Authority on waste issues.

The consultancy will advise the GLA as London seeks to develop new waste recovery technology with a capacity to process an additional two million tonnes of material. Its work will tackle issues including waste data collection, treatment technologies and strategy analysis.

SLR technical director Andy Street said: “To be recognised as one of the preferred suppliers to the GLA is a great achievement for us. We have worked on a wide range of projects in the capital over the last few years and our reputation for quality consultancy services was a big factor in securing this contract.”

Cherwell councillor Keith Mallon with some of the staff from Amenity Services, who processed the questionnaires

Cherwell district council in Oxfordshire is celebrating after a survey revealed that 93% of residents are now using the council's kerbside recycling service.

Council officers sent our 3,500 questionnaires to seek views on the district's alternate weekly collection scheme. Of the replies, 86% said they were satisfied or very satisfied with the service. An impressive 99% of responses stated that recycling was a “very important” activity.

Cherwell currently recycles 43.4% of its waste. Asked about possible improvements, residents asked for kerbside collection of glass, kitchen waste and textiles.

Cllr Kieron Mallon, Cherwell's member for environment, said: “There's enthusiasm for us to go further, and we're looking closely at cost-effective ways to introduce the new services people are keen on.”

Construction company ISG InteriorExterior has said it is now recycling two thirds of all the waste generated by its UK operations – equivalent to more than 19,300 tonnes of materials each year.

The company has published a new environmental report claiming to have smashed the UK average for recycling construction waste, which stands at about 43%. InteriorExterior’s Annual Review of Environmental Procedures report also sets key environmental targets for the company to achieve.

InteriorExterior head of quality and continuous improvement Simon Attwood said: “While we’re delighted with the success attained in 2005, this inevitably means that our benchmark targets for 2006 have to be raised and we will continue to push sustainability throughout the company.”

Celebration: (left to right) Jacqui Owens of Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe, Alan Longshaw of Congleton borough council, Kay Kendall of Save the Children, Cllr Chris Nield and Tina Pownall of Congleton council, Rachel Chadwick of Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe and Julie Haig of Congleton borough council

Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe has presented a 6,000 cheque to charity Save the Children as a result of Congleton borough council's success in recycling.

The Cheshire borough has reached a 36% recycling rate with an alternate-weekly, multi-material recycling and waste collection scheme. Congleton now ranks among the top six councils in the North West for recycling, and among the top 50 for recycling UK-wide.

Managing director of Abitibi-Consolidated Recycling Europe, Ron Humphreys added: “Our relationship with Congleton Borough Council, now approaching 20 years, is wonderfully gratifying and shows exactly what sort of an impact an enduring partnership can have on recycling rates.”