Augean Chief Dr Stewart Davies to take up role as ESA Chair

The Environmental Services Association (ESA), a trade association representing the UK’s resource and waste management industry, has announced that Dr Stewart Davies, Chief Executive of hazardous waste treatment company Augean Plc, has been elected as chairman by the organisation’s board.

He will assume the role from Peter Gerstrom of Cory Environmental at the association’s AGM on 25 November 2016.

Prior to joining Augean, Davies held managing director roles at Romec Ltd, Serco, Rugby Cement and Corus, following 10 years at ICI in operations, commercial and strategy roles. From 2009 to 2015, he was a governing board member of Innovate UK and from 2006 to 2010 was business commissioner on the government’s Sustainable Development Commission. He was made Chief Executive of Augean in August 2013.

Commenting on the role, Davies said: “I am delighted to be taking over the chairmanship of the ESA at such an important time for our industry. As an £11-billion industry investing in cleaner ways to turn Britain’s waste into resources, we can be a major part of the UK’s emerging industrial strategy.

“The ESA has a vital role to play in helping the government join up its thinking on waste and resources, so that our member companies have a clear post-Brexit framework in which to bring forward a private sector‐led package of investment in new waste infrastructure worth £10 billion.”

More information about the ESA can be found on the organisation’s website.

Viridor announces rebrand to ‘reflect its position in the circular economy’

Viridor has announced a new image as part of a rebrand of the companies within its parent organistion, the Pennon Group, which also owns South West Water and Bournemouth Water.

The new branding, including livery to be used on refuse collection vehicles, sees the company switch to a green colour scheme, with the new logo incorporating a circular motif with a plain white V. It has also adopted a new tagline.

Viridor Managing Director Phil Piddington said: “As well as demonstrating the cohesion across the group, the Viridor logo, in its striking green, better reflects our purpose to ‘Give Resources New Life’ with an icon that conveys recycling and Viridor’s position in the circular economy.”

The new identity will appear over the coming months with a rollout that will start with the website and digital platforms and include workwear and new bins as part of a natural replacement process.

More information about Viridor can be found on the company’s website.

Novamont to launch range of 70 per cent bio-based plastics

Biochemical producer Novamont is to launch its range of products made with the fourth generation of its MATER-BI bioplastics range at K 2016, a plastics and rubber trade fair beginning this week in Dusseldorf.

Made from the combination of complex starches and polyesters from oils, azelaic and pelargonic acids and sugars, the material contains up to 70 per cent of renewable raw material and can be used in a wide range of applications, including flexible and rigid films, coatings, printing, extrusion and thermoforming.

Among the MATER-BI solutions on display at the event are: disposable carrier bags for shopping, bags for the separate collection of organic waste, coffee capsules, cutlery and tableware for serving meals and beverages, agricultural mulching film and film for wrapping food.

Novamont says that each of the products can be collected together with organic waste and sent for composting, and that each provides a cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emission per kilo rate ‘at least 54 per cent lower than those for traditional plastics’.

The first plant dedicated to the industrial scale production of the chemical intermediary bio-butanediol, which has resulting in the increase in renewable content, was opened last month in the Veneto region in north-east Italy.

More information about the new generation of Novamont products can be found at the company’s website.