Retail giants Tescos, Co-Op and Argos are among the first beneficiaries of WRAP's 8 million innovation fund for projects aiming to reduce the amount of packaging in shoppers' bins.
WRAP – the Waste and Resources Action Programme – today announced almost 500,000 will go to five projects, which also include schemes run by Yorkshire Fresh Salads and Pira International.
Tesco will be working with Sprout Design Ltd to design a prototype waste-saving ready meal pack. Yorkshire Salads is working with supermarket chain ASDA and consultants Eco3 to research the viability of reducing the amount of packaging in one of its products. Pira International is to work on reducing material use in rigid plastic packaging using “virtual modelling” techniques developed by Altair Engineering.
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Argos will be trialling a re-usable packaging system for what it calls a leading product category.
Co-Op will use its award to support the redesign of the packaging for products, which will be trialled in its stores from March. The company's category marketing manager Helen Eaton said success in the trial brand could see the packaging reduction work extended to other in-store brands.
Corus assists community can collections in Calderdale
Steel reprocessor Corus has provided two can sorters and a baler to help Calderdale community group Kerbside to recycle cans in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire.
 Kerbside (Calderdale) manager Paul Brannigan inspects the sorted and baled steel cans collected through the Calderdale kerbside collection scheme. |
The Mytholmroyd-based group – which has also won 300,000 of lottery funding to provide fortnightly collection of glass, paper, cans and textiles (see letsrecycle.com story) – intends to provide the services for 25,000 households.
Kerbside had sorted cans by hand until manager Paul Brannigan contacted
Corus Steel Packaging Recycling for advice on the best ways to improve the recycling of steel cans.
David Williams, recycling development representative for Corus, said:
“In order to maximise the company's processing of cans, we were happy to be in a position to supply the recycling equipment that would enable the company's process to become more efficient. They will now be able to process a much higher volume of cans, approximately 150 tonnes per year.”
ECT reports good start to Ealing contract
ECT Recycling has said that it is “extremely pleased” with its first week running Ealing's integrated waste management contract, despite a few first week blips.
ECT begun the Clean and Green collection on Monday and Stephen Sears, chief executive at ECT, said that he was more than pleased with the way the first week had gone.
He said: “I am not going to say that things have gone perfectly and there is a lot of work to do to drive up the level of service for the council. But during the first week of a contract things are never going to be perfect.”
The contract, which is worth 9.8 million a year, will see ECT providing household waste collections, street cleansing, and kerbside recycling services for the next seven years. Initially there are no plans to make changes to the collection schemes already in place at the council but long term plans include the collection of kitchen waste.
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Cllr Sears said: “We are waiting for the council to confirm we can begin the collection of kitchen waste, hopefully later this year. The recycling target for the council is tough compared to where it is right now, but we think the targets are achievable.”
Ealing council currently has a recycling rate of 12% but has to achieve a rate of 30% by 2005/06 if it is to make its government set target.
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