Derbyshire consults on HWRCs

Derbyshire County Council is asking residents to highlight what they like and what they think needs improving at the following household waste recycling centres (HWRCs):

• Ashbourne
• Bolsover
• Chesterfield
• Glossop
• Ilkeston
• Loscoe
• Newhall (Bretby)
• Northwood (Darley Dale)
• Buxton (Waterswallows).

Residents can take part in the consultation either online or at their local HWRC this weekend (23-24 November).

Speaking of the consultation, Councillor Joan Dixon, cabinet member for jobs, economy and transport, said: “The county council is facing difficult financial times and needs to save £157 million over the next five years.

"Last year, the county council had to pay £12.3 million in landfill tax. If we all reduce, reuse and recycle more, less will be sent to landfill, which will help to make some of the financial savings needed. That's why the county council is looking for ways to help improve our recycling centres and talk to people about what we can do to help them recycle more."

Despite the need to recycle more, earlier this year, Derby City Council launched a trial to remove recycling collections from four areas of the city, as part of an effort to save money.

Read more about the HWRC consultation.

Budget Pack Ltd acquires Strateco Ltd

Bristol‐based environmental compliance and consultancy business, Budget Pack Ltd, has acquired Oswestry‐based WEEE compliance and environmental consultancy, Strateco Ltd, for an undisclosed sum.

Strateco will now become a subsidiary of Budget Pack Environmental, and will ‘continue to provide unbroken services to its key clients’.

The Chairman of Budget Pack Environmental, Steve Clark, commented: “We are delighted that Strateco is now part of the Budget Pack Group. We have identified great synergies and its acquisition introduces greater depth to our management team which will assist us in our growth plans.”

David Burton, Managing Director of Strateco, added: “Both companies share a common ethos and values and working within the Budget Pack Group provides longer term security for our clients as the compliance market goes through considerable change.”

Further information about the acquisition, and the way in which the companies will work together going forward, will be released ‘in due course’.

Read more about Budget Pack Environmental.

Bournemouth acquires new waste collection vehicles

Bournemouth Borough Council has acquired 20 new ‘Olympus’ waste collection vehicles from Dennis Eagle ahead of the roll out of its new food waste service (scheduled for March 2014).

The new dual-compartment vehicles will reportedly allow the crews to collect food waste and general waste at the same time, whilst keeping the streams separate.

Councillor Michael Filer, portfolio holder for waste, said: “These vehicles are magnificent! They allow our collection crews to collect general waste and food waste at the same time. This means that residents still only have one collection vehicle driving down their road to collect both the rubbish bin and food waste container. It also means that we are minimising our carbon footprint in our collections.

“The vehicles are already being used around the country, and offer us an exciting opportunity to maintain and improve Bournemouth’s lead at the forefront of recycling.”

Read more about Bournemouth’s food waste scheme, or find out more about Dennis Eagle.

Recolight launches integrated WEEE luminaire and lamp compliance service

Recolight, the UK’s WEEE compliance scheme for the lighting industry, has launched a combined WEEE compliance service for luminaires and lamps at this year’s LuxLive lighting exhibition (20-21 November).

Launched to ‘reflect the market and regulatory changes taking place’, the expanded compliance offering hopes to increase the national collection rate for luminaires.

Recolight says this is ‘even more imperative’ given that the draft UK WEEE Regulationsplace luminaires with an integrated LED light source in the same category as lamps.

Nigel Harvey, CEO of Recolight, commented: “Recolight’s goal is to work with our members to dramatically improve the WEEE recycling rate for separately-collected luminaires…

“The integration of lamp and luminaire collections is becoming vital. The supply of new LED luminaires will very frequently result in the need to collect waste luminaires and waste lamps. That service can give our members an important competitive advantage.”

Read more about Recolight.

LRS Consultancy encourages Swiss investment in UK waste industry

LRS Consultancy has become a Certified Expert for Switzerland Global Enterprise and has been working with the Swiss Business Hub to ‘encourage export and investment into the waste and resource management sector’.

As part of this role, LRS was commissioned by Swiss Business Hub to produce a report providing ‘high-level analysis of the national and regional markets in the UK’ to help Swiss businesses ‘determine whether to enter the UK market or make expansion or diversification plans in this sector’.

The review reportedly covers the demand for closed-loop resource efficiency concepts, waste management services, and associated technologies, largely for the recovery of value from materials for reprocessing and energy.

Dee Moloney, Managing Director of LRS Consultancy, said: “Our review is intended to provide useful information and intelligence to enable Swiss companies to exploit opportunities in the UK market to the best of their abilities.”

Thorsten Terweiden, Head of the Swiss Business Hub UK, continued: “LRS Consultancy is now established as a Certified Expert for Switzerland Global Enterprise and I am confident in their ability to support Swiss businesses to expand and export into the UK secondary commodity sector…

“We commissioned the report as part of our ongoing trend spotting efforts, which are an integral part of our services, and we endeavour to identify and assess industry sectors in the UK that would be of interest to Swiss SMEs, due to strong growth or a need for expertise and skills.”

Read more about LRS Consultancy and Swiss Business Hub UK.

Edinburgh Bike Station to refurbish and donate bikes

(L-R): Iain Gulland, Director of Zero Waste Scotland with Gabriel Pechenik Jowers (4), Lily Grace Jones (4), Calum Macaulay (4), and Steve Hynd from the Edinburgh Bike Station

As part of the European Week for Waste Reduction (16-24 November),Edinburgh Bike Station, which is accredited by Revolve, Scotland’s national reuse standard, has announced plans for a new initiative to reuse children’s bikes.

The project will see children’s bikes donated to the shop refurbished into ‘balance bikes’ that will help teach children to cycle without stabilisers. These will then be donated to nurseries in the capital.

Speaking of the initiative, Steve Hynd from Edinburgh Bike Station said: “The Balance Bike Project is a completely new way of putting donated children’s bikes back into use.

“We hope that some of the work in preparing and painting the bikes will be done through the Bike Station’s partnership with prisons. We feel that putting these balance bikes into Edinburgh nurseries will contribute to developing a new generation of Edinburgh cyclists.”

Roksan Hur from Kidzcare Nursery added: "This is really exciting project from the Edinburgh Bike Station, and we're delighted to have the opportunity to be involved in it. Balance bikes are a great way for children to learn to cycle without stabilisers, and refurbishing unwanted bikes gives them a new lease of life and will help the environment."

The project has been welcomed by Iain Gulland, Director at Zero Waste Scotland, who said: “It’s great to see people and organisations across Scotland joining in this European initiative and helping us to promote reuse.”

Read more about the Edinburgh Bike Station and the European Week for Waste Reduction.