News in Brief

Ealing recycling rise saves council 2.58m

The council had set itself a target of achieving over a 40% recycling and composting rate for the past financial year and said 29,172 tonnes of recyclable material was collected from households, recycling centres and bring sites over the 12 months. Included in the total amount of recycling collected is 4,936 tonnes of food waste, which includes 160 tonnes of food waste collected from schools alone. Ealing also collected 6,161 tonnes of garden waste from households, and an additional 2,505 tonnes of garden waste from reuse and recycling centres.

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for transport and environment, said: Every tonne that we divert from landfill not only has an environmental benefit but also saves us money, which we can then spend on valuable services. The majority of residents can recycle a wide range of materials from their homes, including plastic, batteries, clothes and shoes, so there is no excuse not to recycle and 2.5 million reasons why everyone should.

JCB holds special 65th anniversary celebrations

Plant and vehicle manufacturing giant JCB has held a special celebration to mark 65 years of operation, which saw it issue employees with a bottle of wine and a commemorative DVD.

The company, which is a major supplier of equipment to the waste and recycling sector, also cut a special JCB cake at its World HQ site at Rocester in Staffordshire. JCB employees each received a bottle of Chteau Loube ros wine, two glasses and a DVD highlighting the global footprint of a company, which started life in a lock-up garage in Uttoxeter. The celebration took place in order to coincide with the 95th anniversary of the birth of JCBs founder, the late Joseph Cyril Bamford.

JCB chairman, Sir Anthony Bamford, said: Our business would be nowhere without the people we employ. There are a few ingredients in business which are highly important and the people are the most important and the gift is a way of saying thank you. I would like to thank all JCB employees for their contribution to the tremendous success of our business over the years, and I look forward to more successful times ahead as we plan for the future growth of our company.

Consortium tables plans for 40m Lancashire EfW

A consortium involving energy firm Reform Energy and waste management company Wyre Waste Recycling has submitted plans to develop a 40 million energy-from-waste facility in Lancashire.

The companies have formally submitted proposals to Lancashire county council to develop the 80,000 tonnes-a-year capacity plant, which would generate 10MW of renewable energy, at Fleetwood. Reform Energy claims that the proposal is the first of its kind in the UK as it combines a combined heat and power waste-to-energy facility and an adjacent commercial waste recycling operation. The partnership intends to have the facility up-and-running in 2013 and Reform said that it is first of several projects it has planned for development across the North West.

A spokesman for Reform Energy said: The energy recovery plants are designed to efficiently use recycled waste material from commercial sources, and each one is tailored to its specific location. Sophisticated technology and management of the site by our expert team will mean little or no local impact but enormous benefits in terms of green energy and new employment.

Hadfield welcomes wood landfill restriction plans

Wood waste recycling specialist Hadfield Wood Recyclers has welcomed government proposals to consult on banning wood waste from landfill but has also offered a word of caution.

In the Review of Waste Policy in England, published earlier this month, the government said it would consult in 2012 on the potential forrestricting wood waste from landfill (see letsrecycle.com story). The Wood Recyclers’ Association has already welcomed the proposedconsultation and claimedthat anypotential ban wouldprovide a major boost for the sector (see letsrecycle.com story).

Manchester-based Hadfield has also welcomed the move, but stressed that there needs to be suitable end markets in place and a concerted effort by the Environment Agency to ensure that anyfuture restrictionis complied with.

David Lee, group operations director at Hadfield Wood Recyclers, said: We are committed to eliminating wood from landfill and welcome the decision to consult on a ban. The landfill tax regime has gone a long way to minimising the amount of easily segregate-able wood going to landfill. Our feeling at present is that for any ban to be effective, it would need to be supported by an appropriate focus within the Environment Agency ensuring compliance of both a landfill ban, and the use of wood in appropriate legitimate end markets.

Environcom fined 17,000 over appliance incident

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling firm Environcom has been fined a total of 17,000 following an incident which saw an agency worker suffer bruising on his back and chest after a stack of appliances fell on him.

Grantham Magistrates Court heard how the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited the firms reprocessing plant at Spittlegate Level in Grantham on September 15 2009 and discovered that appliances were stacked five or six high, and that this made them unstable. An incident was reported to the HSE in November 2009 and, upon revisiting the site, the health watchdog found that appliances were stills stacked dangerously high. A Prohibition Notice was served immediately to prevent unsafe stacking.

Environcom, which is registered as a company in Manchester, pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which places an obligation on employers to ensure employee safety and wellbeing as far as practicable. It was fined 7,000 for the offence on September 15 and 10,000 for the further offence on December 3 2009. The firm was also ordered to pay full costs of 5,915.20p.