Materials Recycling Week
10 February 2012
View all stories from this issue.
-
BPF slams ‘ridiculous’ packaging targets
The British Plastics Federation has slammed Defra’s proposed plastics packaging recycling targets, labelling them “unachievable and deeply concerning”. -
Food bids allowed for weekly collection fund
Councils will be able to bid for a slice of the £250m weekly bin collections fund if they want to develop food waste collection services as well as residual waste services, Eric Pickles has revealed. -
Northern Ireland opts for plastic bag tax
A 5p tax on plastic carrier bags is to be introduced in Northern Ireland next year, an environment minister announced last week. -
Peake joins Kier
Former May Gurney waste chief Nicola Peake has joined Kier’s environmental services division, MRW has learned. -
Bins fund timetable 'challenging'
Councils have been told that the timetable to introduce the Government’s £250m fund for weekly residual waste collections will be “challenging”. -
Council contract for Viridor extended
Viridor has won a three-year extension to its contract with the London borough of Tower Hamlets to process domestic mixed recyclable materials. -
'Disappointing' results for RCV firm
Swedish truck maker Scania, which makes refuse collection vehicles as well as street sweepers, coaches and other specialist trucks, has blamed the Euro crisis and a strong Krona for a 29% drop in fourth-quarter profits to Skr2.13bn (£200m). -
FoE: Pickles ‘seen sense’ on bins plans
Green campaigners have praised Eric Pickles for “belatedly seeing sense” in allowing councils to bid for funding for food waste collections. -
Food (waste) for thought from Pickles
Eric Pickles’ has used the media well to promote his campaign to banish alternate weekly bin collections, so it was curious he chose last Friday to publish the Weekly Collection Support Scheme prospectus. -
Hiding its head in the levant sand
The business sector must be mindful of wider political issues -
Hopes of buyer for failed plastics recycler
The administrators of the failed Welsh recycling company Plastic Sorting Ltd (PSL) this week said they were hopeful of securing a buyer for the business. -
Household recycling rate up just 0.5%
Households recycle three times what they did 10 years ago, government data has revealed. -
How long can it be before green energy subsidies are cut?
NOTE: Lawney asked us to check carefully as he usually has is re-read in house but his side-kick is on hols! An, he says, he failed his O-level English “dismally”! -
Land of hope and glory
How dredged material from a Cornish estuary cna be used to make high-quality soils -
Minister backs IESE framework
Lord Taylor has given his backing to a controversial project to save councils £85m on waste contracts by pooling their buying power, as the deadline to submit tenders was delayed. -
Minister: councils should adopt business recycling code
Waste minister Lord Taylor has urged every council in England to commit to a voluntary code to drive up business recycling. -
MRF code consultation ‘in summer’
Defra will consult on a code of practice for materials recovery facilities (MRFs) in the summer, if ministers agree to make the code mandatory, Lord Taylor has said. -
New buyer sought for failed plastic recycler
The collapse of a Welsh recycler of plastic bottles has been blamed on the recession - and a lack of material quality. -
Packaging targets criticised by industry
Proposed plastics packaging recycling targets have been labelled “politically driven” and “deeply concerning” by industry chiefs as the government consultation on the new objectives closes. -
Plastics recycler calls in administrators
A Welsh plastics reprocessor which claims to have the UK’s largest capacity PET reprocessing plant has gone into administration. -
Police seize cabling, drain covers, beer barrels and cash from scrap yards
Police have arrested 10 men at four scrap dealers across Wiltshire in an anti-theft operation. -
Pressure mounts on Veolia over Israel links
Global waste management firm Veolia is facing renewed pressure in the UK over its operations in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. -
Reasons to be seen on the world stage
How engaged is the UK waste sector with debate in the rest of Europe and across the world? -
RWM announces new features
Organisers of RWM in partnership with CIWM exhibition have announced a series of new features for this year’s show. -
Safeguards sought over EU target fines
Details of safeguards for councils liable for EU fines if they miss targets including recycling goals have been set out by the government. -
Scrap law changes defeated
A Labour peer has narrowly failed in a bid to introduce greater powers for police to inspect and search scrap metal yards. -
Scrap merchants mourn Thamesteel collapse
Scrap merchants have warned that the collapse of a major steelmaker in the south-east will make them more dependent on volatile export markets. -
Sorting at source
Bin innovation can aid sorting materials at source and makes good business sense, says Peter Vernon. -
South Wales recycling given £5m boost
A range of new recycling services will be provided in South Wales after a £5m EU funding boost. -
'Suspicious' blaze at paper plant
The fire service has said it is treating a blaze at an East Anglian recycle firm as “suspicious”. -
Sweeping away doubt
If the UK wants to boost recycling rates it needs to tackle new waste streams, says George Anderson, who argues that road sweepings are a good way to go -
Top skip tips
With so many skip options out there how do you choose the right one for your needs? -
Waste minister hints at mandatory MRF code
Waste minister Lord Taylor last week gave a heavy hint that the long-awaited code of practice for materials recovery facilities (MRFs) would be made mandatory. -
Watchdog probes toxic waste export
The Environment Agency is to probe how a reported 113 shipping containers of toxic waste from the UK and the Netherlands ended up in Indonesian waters.
