News in Brief

M-real's 100% recycled paper “Evolve” is being donated to support London's sustainability campaign next month

Paper manufacturer M-Real is donating 100% recycled paper for the printing of 120,000 event guides and 250,000 flyers for London Sustainability Weeks next month.

Now in its fourth year, the two week long series of events is taking place from June 4 with the aim of encouraging environmentally friendly lifestyles across the capital. Last year 450 events took place.

Paul O'Shaughnessy, M-real UK brand manager for office papers, said: “Last year there were over 450 local LSW events which shows that
Londoners do want to make a difference to their environment. M-real hopes that we have helped to spread the green message even further across the city by supplying EVOLVE for LSW 2006 printed materials.”

Hackney council, the second London borough to make recycling compulsory for residents, has said the scheme has seen a 20% rise in recycling tonnage since its start at the end of February.

The four wards affected up to now have been targeted with publicity campaigns that have taken a multi-lingual direction to include Charedi Jewish and Turkish-speaking communities. March 2006 saw an extra 26 tonnes of material collected in the compulsory area – and a knock-on affect on recycling rates in the rest of the borough. The borough recycled 19.6% of household waste in March 2006.

Fiona Fletcher Smith, corporate director for Neighbourhoods and Regeneration, said: “Recycling in Hackney has increased rapidly over the past couple of years. With the introduction of new services, residents across the borough are finding it really easy and convenient to do their bit. Introducing compulsory recycling has helped drive the message home and already we are seeing results.”

Residents in high rise flats will have their glass, paper and cans collected every fortnight

Trafford metropolitan borough council is giving residents living in 150 high rise blocks the chance to join the recycling revolution, with new communal recycling bins provided by Plastic Omnium.

Each container has a different colour lid to represent glass, paper and cans/tins, ranging from a capacity of 240 litres to 400 litres depending on the number of residents living in the building. The bins will be emptied fortnightly by the council's contractors, Veolia Environmental Services. The council said it would extend the scheme to every block of flats suitable.

Paul Harvey, Trafford council’s director of environment, said it was important to identify ways of engaging the householders in flats and apartments. He explained: “In Trafford, apartments and flats account for 17 per cent of housing stock. We wanted to make sure people in those properties had an equal chance to contribute to our recycling efforts.”

Axion Recycling's John Sidebottom

Plastics recycling company Axion Recycling Ltd is strengthening its recycling service for hard plastics with a new recycling sales manager.

As well as sourcing rigid plastics from the industrial sector, John Sidebottom's new role will also involve building up the intake of plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment as new EU-inspired regulations come into play later this year. He will also support the WRAP mobile plastics recycling trial (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Sidebottom said: “Growing pressure on landfill sites and increasingly-stringent European legislation means we have to adopt environmentally sound ways of disposing of waste, particularly plastics.”

Cllr Tim Knight and Cllr John West of Hampshire county council and Cllr Sean Keating from Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council open the new facility.

Hampshire county council has opened a newly expanded household waste recycling centre in Basingstoke.

The Wade Road facility has been through a 650,000 expansion scheme to include a larger site area to double the number of collection containers and car parking spaces available. One of the busiest recycling centres in the county, the site has been made quicker and easier to use.

Executive member for environment Cllr Tim Knight said: “The county council's 24 recycling centres across Hampshire are used by almost four million people every year, bringing in 250,000 tonnes of material. We recognise the value of these sites, and are making significant capital investment in the coming years to make them bigger and better.”