Novelis opens new aluminium treatment line in Germany

Rolled aluminium product manufacturer and recycler Novelis has opened a new treatment line in Germany that will see recycled material used to supply the European automotive industry.

The state-of-the-art aluminium automotive heat treatment line in Nachterstedt is located adjacent to the company’s existing rolling mill and aluminium recycling centre, the latter of which Novelis says is the largest in the world.

The $85 million (£55 million) investment will increase production capacity to 350,000 tonnes of automotive sheet annually.

A Novelis spokesperson told Resource: “Recycling is a core part of Novelis’s business model, with more than 49 per cent of our inputs being from recycled material in the 2015 financial year. The new automotive heat treatment line in Nachterstedt further supports our closed-loop recycling model and was designed in alignment with our recycling centers in Nachterstedt and Latchford.”

Novelis has partnerships with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), BMW and Ford to supply aluminium for vehicles. In September, it was awarded the Best Business to Business Partnership Award at the 2015 Ethical Corporation Responsible Business Awards for its work with JLR.

The company’s REALCAR (Recycled Aluminium CAR) project, launched in 2008, aims to create a closed-loop production model using production scrap and works towards the capacity to recycle automobiles at the end of their lives while meeting specifications for the automobile industry.

Find out more about the REALCAR project.

Wildlife Trust trimmings recycled in partnership with London Zoo

Tree management at The Wildlife Trust’s Cottage Bottom Fields nature reserve in Bedfordshire is benefitting residents of ZSL London Zoo.

Thanks to a partnership between the two organisations, Acer Conservation has been recycling the wood and branches from maintenance at the Wildlife Trust site by sending it to the zoo to be used as browse.

Browse is plant material used for animal enrichment and to supplement their diets, important for both the physical and behavioural health of the animal. It includes logs and branches to play with and to chew and sleep on.

Esther Clarke, Bedfordshire Reserves Officer for the Wildlife Trust, said: “The work at our reserve is required to thin trees and widen paths so that the trees have more space and more sunlight can reach the woodland floor to encourage flowers to grow. The leafy branches are driven down to the zoo where they are hung up for animals to browse on. We get the woodland managed and the giraffes get nice fresh branches to eat!”

Fiona Sach, Nutrition and Research Officer at ZSL London, said: “For some species, such as the gorillas and giraffes, this browse is an essential part of their diet whereas for others it’s simply a tasty snack, or in the case of the anteaters, a hollowed log is the perfect nail file – they use their long claws to strip off the bark in search of tiny insect treats.

“We make sure to use all of the material – and nothing goes to waste. What’s left after the animals have been given their food or enrichment is put through the wood chipper and used as substrate in the enclosures.”

Find out more about The Wildlife Trust Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire.

ACE signs North Lanarkshire glass recycling contract

Alloa Community Enterprises (ACE) Recycling Group CIC has been appointed by North Lanarkshire Council to collect glass bottles and jars from approximately 100,000 households across the region through an 18-month contract.

The contract, worth around £576,000, comes after a pilot project in which ACE collected glass from an initial 26,000 homes as part of a separate glass recycling service. All homes in the area will now receive new blue wheelie bins with green lids specifically for glass bottles and jars. These will be collected every four weeks.

The council expects to makes savings of over £500,000 a year in landfill tax charges because of the contract, which it expects to divert an extra 10,000 tonnes of glass from landfill every year.

Malcolm McArdle, Managing Director of ACE, said: “Proper waste management not only saves money but creates new jobs and helps grow Scotland’s recycling and reprocessing industry. We have shared the government's vision of a zero waste Scotland for many years.

"We work with a number of local authorities, businesses and communities across Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Falkirk, Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, diverting almost 20,000 tonnes of waste from their civic amenity sites every year and ensuring glass is collected directly from business premises and households.”

Find out more about Alloa Community Enterprises.

Fifteen more prosecuted by Don’t Mess With Croydon

Fifteen litterers and fly-tippers have been prosecuted in Croydon Magistrates’ Court as part of the latest round of Don’t Mess With Croydon prosecutions.

Offences ranged from dropping cigarettes to dumping rubbish in the street. Thirteen of the defendants were issued with fines of up to £510 (including court costs), while two were given conditional discharges.

Since launching the campaign in summer 2014, the council has issued more than 800 fixed penalty notices and prosecuted fly-tippers through the courts, including Gladstone Mark Buchanan, who was jailed for six months for dumping 42 tonnes of waste.

Croydon Council has also introduced 80 new dual waste and recycling bins as part of the campaign

Councillor Stuart Collins, cabinet member for Clean, Green Croydon, said: “These 15 cases show that whether it’s dropping a cigarette butt or dumping bags of rubbish in the street, we will take action and see that offenders are punished in the courts.

“Our Don’t Mess With Croydon campaign is about changing attitudes – it is not acceptable to be selfish and mess up your neighbours’ streets. These prosecutions serve as a deterrent to those who think they can litter or fly-tip and get away with it. The warning message is quite simple – drop litter in Croydon and face a criminal record.”

Find out more about the Don’t Mess With Croydon campaign.

Recolight promotes lamp recycling at Lord Mayor’s Show

Recolight, a waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) compliance scheme for the lighting industry, raised awareness of the importance of recycling lamps at the 800th annual Lord Mayor’s Show in the City of London on Saturday (14 November), with some help from mascots Bertie Bulb and Lucy LED.

The mascots were among the 7,000 people, 200 horses and 155 floats involved in the parade from Mansion House to the Royal Courts of Justice.

The UK has had the second highest lamp recycling rate in Europe for the past two years, with Recolight and its 163 members contributing to this figure with the compliance scheme’s free lamp collection and recycling service.

Specially-designed Recolight containers were installed in the City of London in 2013 to make lamp recycling easier and more accessible.

Find out more about Recolight.