1. Westminster City Council installs Taylor street units

(L-R): Waste and Recycling Manager at Westminster City Council, Phil Robson and Taylor's Dave Buckley with the new bins

Westminster City Council has announced it is installing around 100 street-scene recycling bins from bin manufacturer Taylor UK, in an attempt to ‘improve public engagement with waste and recycling’.

The housing units comprise several compartments for collecting dry recyclable waste, such as plastic bottles, cans and paper.

Phil Robson, Waste and Recycling Manager at Westminster City Council, said: “With the Street units, we’re aiming to make recycling a more attractive proposition by integrating waste containers into Westminster’s street scene, make recycling more accessible for and appealing to those in flats and improve the quality of public engagement points with waste.”

Dave Buckley of Taylor, added: “The challenge is continuing to make recycling accessible, effective and affordable. Westminster City Council’s uptake of our urban solution illustrates how achieving all three factors is now within the realms of possibility.”

For more information visit Taylor’s website.

2. Lamp producers should offer free lamp recycling

Ninety-seven per cent of Facilities Managers think that lamp producers should offer free lamp recycling facilities, new data from WEEE lamp compliance scheme, Recolight has found.

Respondents to Recolight’s survey were asked how important they think free lamp recycling is for encouraging recycling, whether all lamp producers should be required to offer free lamp recycling, and whether the target of recycling 65 per cent of lamps by 2016 is achievable.

The results showed that 97 per cent believed that all lamp producers should be obliged to finance free lamp recycling, with 94 per cent saying they believed the 2016 recycling target was achievable.

Those unsure cited “better awareness” as an absolute must for the targets to be achieved and suggested that this is especially true for household recycling.

Read more about Recolight.

3.Cherwell’s WEEE Scheme ‘off to a flying start’

Councillor Nigel Morris with WEEE collected from Cherwell residents

The first three months of Cherwell District Council’s kerbside waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling initiative has seen more than 19 tonnes of small electrical goods collected from residents.

In addition to the Oxfordshire council’s dedicated ‘bring’ banks, used for larger items such as televisions and refrigerators, the scheme allows residents to recycle smaller unwanted WEEE items on normal collection days. Placed on top of their wheeled bins in Cromwell carrier bags, they are taken to a facility in Daventry where they are stripped and broken down into individual materials for recycling.

Cherwell’s Councillor Nigel Morris commented: "We regularly promote the benefits of recycling, but we understand it is not always possible for people to visit our bring banks. By providing initiatives whereby people can recycle even more items from home it makes the process a lot more customer friendly.”

Sales Director for Cromwell, the supplier of the WEEE bags, Paul Fleetwood said: “The WEEE bags, which are distinctly coloured for ease of identification… have clearly made an impact with residents, helping to get the scheme off to a flying start.”

4.TOMRA Sorting’s technology recognised

Sensor-based sorting equipment provider, TOMRA Sorting, has increased its market share of the UK’s commercial and industrial (C&I) recycling sector following a host of new contracts.

TITECH’s sorting solutions, including near infrared (NIR), X-ray transmission (XRT), visual spectrometers (VIS), colour line cameras and metal sensors will be installed in various C&I material recovery facilities, including Weir Waste’s plant in Birmingham, which processes 95,000 tonnes of waste annually.

Other contracts cover MRFs in Wigan, Exeter and Merseyside, which produce over 70,000 tonnes of waste/year.

The company’s automated technology is said to be able to recover 70 - 80 per cent of material at purity rates of 95 per cent, compared to 10 -20 per cent recovery level achieved by manual or semi-automated recovery techniques, ‘keeping manual labour costs down and residue to a minimum’.

Stephen Almond, Sales Engineer at TOMRA, said: “Introducing advanced automated sorting systems for this complex material stream delivers clear commercial, legislative and environmental benefits and these new contracts demonstrate that UK recycling companies are recognising this.”

5. Envirobins at Loughborough University

In a bid to improve recycling rates in student accommodation blocks, Loughborough University has installed over 1000 ‘Mini Envirobins’ from Leafield Environmental.

Moulded from tough polyethylene, the 55-litre capacity bin comes with a choice of colour-coded lid options with accompanying graphics.

According to Loughborough University, poor recycling rates across halls of residence were the main driving force for the project. Research identified that the existing scheme was ‘confusing and often contradictory’ from building to building.

Residential Services Manager, Dominic Gregory, said: “We wanted a scheme that was consistent and a bin that had a very clear message, was robust, functional and easy to use.

“We were also keen to incorporate the University’s ‘It’s better off to Recycle’ campaign motif. Having looked at several options and tried different sized bins in different locations we reached the conclusion the Mini Envirobin was the best option.”

Read more about Leafield Environmental’s Envirobin.

6. Large fire at cooking oil recycling factory

Picture credit: Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service

On Monday 20 May, Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS) was called to a fire at Pelican Foodscooking oil recycling factory in Stourport-on-Severn.

Fire crews from Stourport and Kidderminster were first to arrive at the unit, and immediately requested extra resources on finding a ‘severe’ fire.

At the peak of the incident, 70 firefighters were using 10 fire appliances to tackle the blaze, which involved around 60 tonnes of waste oil and 500 litres of kerosene.

The fire service was support by Environment Agency and specialist resources crews, whos worked to prevent oil from entering the nearby river, while West Mercia Police and West Midlands Ambulance Service assisted with the evacuation of local residents to a rest centre organised by Worcestershire County Council.

HWFRS Group Commander Mick Cadman, said: “Our initial objectives were to prevent the fire spreading to other buildings located just metres away from the factory and to limit the impact of the fire on the environment and the local community.

“This was achieved, thanks to the hard work of all the crews involved and the support of our partner agencies.”

There were no reported injuries.

7. Environment Agency and Kent Police intervene to prevent illegal disposal of waste.

Working in conjunction with officers from Kent Police, Environment Agency Environmental Crime Team officers yesterday (23 May) executed two search warrants across Maidstone and Ashford as part of their investigation into waste crime offences in those areas.

The director of an undisclosed waste company and two of the company’s drivers were arrested and taken to their local police station for questioning. All three are now under further investigation.

This investigation, part of a wider crackdown on illegal waste sites across Kent and South London by the Environment Agency, has seen the closure of 157 illegal sites over the last year.

Dave Riley, Environment Agency Investigating Officer, said: “We have been working closely with Kent Police, who have been very helpful, to monitor the sites used for these crimes for some time. As a result of that investigation, we have been able to act quickly to ensure that this waste dumping is stopped.

“Waste crime can put the environment and human health at risk and undermines legitimate local businesses. It is a serious offence which the Environment Agency wants to make sure doesn’t pay.”

The Environment Agency is continuing to carry out a complex criminal investigation into the potential dumping of the waste.