News in Brief

Over the next few months Hull city council is organising a series of &#39B;ring out your recycling and rubbish days' across several areas during August, September and October to increase residents understanding of recycling.

In partnership with the City of Hull & Humber Environment Forum (CHEF), the council is offering the chance for residents to talk face-to-face with a council recycling officer and a CHEF representative on any aspect of recycling onboard the CHEF information bus. They will be there to answer any queries on recycling services and to give useful recycling tips that residents can use when recycling in the future.

Veolia's Forest Row CA site breaks local recycling record

Veolia has revealed that its Forest Row civic amenity site in East Sussex achieved a 68% recycling rate this June – an increase of 23% on the June 2005 figure of 45%.

David Hicks, Veolia environmental services recycling site manager, said: “We are very proud of the achievements at Forest Row, and at all of our sites, and would like to thank both our staff and site users for their fantastic recycling efforts.

He added: “We are always looking for new ways to increase reuse and recycling and it is very rewarding to see such great results.”

Veolia Environmental Services (formerly Onyx) has a 25 year contract for the delivery of an integrated waste management service across East Sussex and Brighton & Hove.

WRAP launches capital funding competition to increase plasterboard recycling

WRAP has begun a Plasterboard Capital Support Programme is to provide financial assistance for projects in the UK to increase the quantity and quality of plasterboard that is recovered and recycled from the construction and demolition sector.

The Plasterboard Capital Support Programme is open to anyone involved in recovering and reprocessing waste plasterboard, from SMEs to multi-nationals. The programme will provide up to 30% of the eligible capital costs of a project, such as plant, equipment, land and infrastructure.

Projects eligible for funding under the programme include:

• new or additional collection and bulking facilities for onward recycling;
• new or additional collection and mobile processing capacity;
• new or additional processing and recycling facilities to produce recovered plasterboard for onward sale into markets such as agriculture, cement manufacture and clay block manufacture, or for sale back into plasterboard manufacture.

Leicestershire county council has produced a free, interactive CD-ROM teach children how to reduce the amount of waste they create.

The council's waste education pack, distributed to all primary schools in Leicestershire aims to help teachers teach primary children to reduce the amount of waste they create, can now be used on computers.

Professor Mike Preston, cabinet lead member for waste management, said: “Educating children on the importance of recycling and waste minimisation is key to the future of managing the waste we generate and the resources we use.”