1. London tackles litter

Image courtesy of the Greater London Authority

London Mayor Boris Johnson and fast-food chain McDonald’s are running a ‘Capital Clean-up’ programme to help provide volunteers with tools needed to tackle London’s litter problem.

Volunteer groups can apply to the Greater London Authority for one of 35 grants of up to £500 or one of 60 special litter-picking kits under the programme, which aims to remove litter and graffiti from the local area and ‘smarten up neighbourhood[s]’.

The litter-picking kits contain litter pickers, tabards, bin bags and a £50 voucher to help pay for new planting and painting.

‘Capital Clean-up’ is now in its sixth year. Previous grants have funded mass litter picking in a parks, canals and river towpaths, painting over graffiti and building planters to enhance a neighbourhood, and forming a litter group that commits to on-going cleaning and greening maintenance.

Read more about ‘Capital Clean-up’.

2. WEEEcycling day

A one-day event is being held in Milton Keynes on 13 September to allow businesses, residents and organisations to recycle their broken waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The equipment will be accepted free of charge and staff will be available to help with unloading.

The event will be hosted by the European Recycling Platform and supported by Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes Chamber of Commerce in an attempt to increase the amount of WEEE that is recycled in the area.

The council states that ‘anything with a battery or a plug’ will be accepted on the day.

Find out more about Milton Keynes’s WEEE recycling day.

3. Viridor landfill could host solar park

Waste management group Viridor has announced plans to build a solar park to harness energy on a former landfill site in Westbury. It is also conducting a survey of all of its sites in the South West and South East of England to see if they could also host future solar facilities.

The Wesbury site currently produces enough landfill gas to power the on-site turbines, but Viridor states that it expects this to run out in five to six years.

Conversely, the proposed solar park would cover ten hectares and provide generate 3.5 megawatt hours when fully operational, enough to power 1,200 homes.

Marcus Du Pree Thomas, Viridor's Development Manager, said: "The development is a wholly sustainable proposal that will help meet Wiltshire's renewable energy targets.”

Read more about Viridor’s solar plans.

4. Grundon goes green

Waste firm Grundon has invested £2.8 million in a fleet of 22 environmentally-friendly waste collection vehicles, which will feature ‘more efficient’ gearboxes and eco-friendly tyres.

All vehicles will be fitted with an automatic engine shutdown, which comes into effect after five minutes of idling. Grundon’s Waste Wheeler vehicles will also have automatic gearboxes and new axle configurations to improve fuel economy and reduce tyre wear, as well as six safety cameras on each vehicle.

The Waste Wheelers, as well as the firm’s Rolonof vehicles, will also feature Euro V EEV (Enhanced Environmentally friendly Vehicle) power units.

Further to the vehicular changes, Grundon has also launched a tyre-recycling programme with Tructyre (Fleet Management), which it estimates could save 68,000 litres of oil, 44,000 kg of rubber compound and more than 182,000kg of carbon dioxide over the course of a year.

Read more about Grundon.

5. Tamar announces next wave of AD facilities

Artist's impression of Tamar Energy's Farleigh AD plant

Tamar Energy has announced the details and locations of where it will build its next four anaerobic digestion (AD) plants.

The newest Tamar AD plants will be:Bromley, Greater London
A two megawatt (MW) plant with a capacity of around 46,000 tonnes per annum (acquired from the Countrystyle Group);
Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire
Planning permission has been granted for a three MW plant that will process commercial and industrial food waste. Work will start ‘in the coming weeks’ and the site is expected to be operational in ‘late 2014’;
Ramsbottom, Greater Manchester
A planning application has been submitted to build a two MW site with a capacity of 45,000 tonnes per annum on part of the Fletcher Bank Quarry site, owned by Peel Environmental and Marshalls; and
Wardley, Gateshead A planning application has been submitted to develop a three MW plant with a capacity of 70,000 tonnes per year on the site of the former UK Coal Disposal Point at Wardley Colliery. 

The facilities form part of Tamar’s plans to develop the UK’s largest network of AD plants, and follows on from the announcement of the first four plants in June.

Alan Lovell, Chairman and Chief Executive, Tamar Energy said” “[The] announcement of the plans for the next wave of facilities marks another milestone in Tamar Energy’s vision to develop a flexible, wide reaching AD network to create renewable energy from the cost-effective, sustainable treatment of organic waste.”

Read more about Tamar Energy’s AD network plans.

6. SLR opens central London office

Environmental consultancy firm SLR Consulting, has opened a new office in central London, ‘in response to a growing market’ for its services.

SLR currently provides services to firms in the energy, waste management, planning and development, infrastructure, manufacturing and mining sectors. It states the Victoria location will allow it to reach new clients, including the Greater London Authority, Climate Change Capital and Balfour Beatty Capital.

Speaking of the new location, SLR Managing Director Neil Penhall said: "We have established a valued client base across London and the South East and are keen to offer them a wider range of quality environmental services, while also tapping into new networks.

"In addition, our new London office will support our recruitment drive to attract additional industry experts to help drive our expansion plans."

Read more about SLR Consulting’s new office.