News in Brief

London Remade has said its Mayor's Green Procurement Code has succeeded in encouraging organisations in the capital to spend 20 million on recycled products.

A purchase audit has been carried out for the 80 organisations taking part in the project in 2003/04, which is supported by London Mayor Ken Livingstone. As well as the 20 million spent on recycled goods, the Code achieved a diversion from landfill of about 350,000 tonnes of material, London Remade said.

The Green Procurement Code has now set itself major targets for 2004/05, Tina Perfrement, market development manager at London Remade, said: “We are aiming to double the money spent each year, we achieved from year one to year two so we are looking at 40 million next year.”

In September, London 2012 signed up to the code, following Ford who has also come on board in recent months. The organisation also has all 33 London authorities signed up.

ITN newsreader Carol Barnes has launched a new recycling campaign for residents in Brighton and Hove.

Cllr Gill Mitchell (right) with ITN's Carol Barnes and WRAP's Gareth Lloyd at the launch of Brighton's recycling campaign

Ms Barnes was joined by the city council's environment spokesperson, Councillor Gill Mitchell and Gareth Lloyd from WRAP, for the start of the “Think Inside the Box” campaign. About 48,000 households in the area now have multi-material kerbside recycling services, with the council expanding the 2.7 million scheme by 5,000 homes each month until two thirds of the city's households are covered by April 2005.

Cllr Mitchell said: “We've already had some fantastic results, with our highest performing area recycling 48.7% of its waste. The city is doing fantastically well and I&#39d; like to offer my thanks to those residents who are already part of the kerbside scheme.”

Brighton recycled about 15% of its household waste in 2002/03, but has government targets to recycle 30% of its waste by 2005/06.

Addressing contaminant and quality issues in composting could increase usage of compost products by more than 300%, according to WRAP.

In a new report, the Waste and Resources Action Programme said the “current users and non-users of compost both share concerns over compost quality and fear contamination from genetically modified materials, heavy metals, weeds, pathogens and pesticides.”

The government-funded market development organisation said the 300% increase could be achieved by 2007, mainly in the organic farming sector. The report also found that half of UK organic farmers would begin using or increase their usage of compost if concerns over quality and contaminants were addressed.

WRAP said it was addressing these issues with its BSI PAS 100 compost standard and a range of research and development projects assessing product variation and the affect of composting on the presence of pathogens.