Viridor plans Sutton AD plant with half initial capacity Viridor has submitted a fresh planning application to build an anaerobic digestion facility in the London Borough of Sutton, after a reassessment found less waste will be produced in the surrounding area than originally thought. Initially, Viridor received permission to build an AD facility capable of processing 75,000 tonnes of waste each year along with other waste management infrastructure in 2008. However, after a fresh assessment of how much waste is likely to be generated by the four boroughs it will serve – Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton – it was concluded that a smaller facility would be more appropriate. more...
A new campaign has been launched by Derbyshire County Council in attempt to encourage its residents to recycle more. The campaign, We’re Not Wasters, places emphasis on reduce, reuse and recycle and asks residents to submit their top reuse tips to the council to be in with a chance of receiving a £10 high street gift voucher.
LWaRB allocates £28 million to London's waste infrastructure The London Waste and Recycling Board has allocated £28 million to help develop waste infrastructure in the Capital. The money is to be allocated within a group of 20 preferred projects. These projects will be identified by the board over the next 12 months according to which ones suit the Mayor of London’s preferred approach to waste management. more...
Improving productivity and efficiency on bin rounds could lead to cost savings for local authorities according to a new guidance document. Introducing a no side waste policy and reducing the number of vehicle passes per household are just two of the measures suggested in More for Less, guidance for local authorities on saving money in waste and recycling services, published by the Waste Improvement Network.
Bristol submits waste incentive proposal Today (8 March) Bristol City Council submitted its proposal to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to trial a waste incentive scheme. Under the scheme householders would receive 50 pence for each kilogramme of waste reduced from its average waste levels but householders would only be able to receive a maximum of £17.50 a year.
Biomass development in the English regions could be set to increase following the release of new guidelines from the Department of Energy and Climate Change designed to aid regional authorities in assessing their potential for renewable energy. The guidelines should help the English regions, of which there are nine, set themselves ambitious renewable targets in their new regional strategies.
Four bidders have successfully made it through to the next stage of the South London Waste Partnership’s procurement process. Resources from Waste, Viridor, Veoila and Waste Recycling Group have all made it through to the Invitation to Submit Detailed Solutions stage of the process.
Projected budget cuts in council spending, highlighted in a recent BBC survey, will not necessarily affect waste and recycling services. The BBC survey on the future of council spending, published on Monday, highlighted the estimated percentage cuts in services local authorities expect to face over the next three to five years.
New soil from recycled waste for barren steelworks The multi-million pound regeneration project of a 200-year-old steelworks “wasteland” has combined recycled green waste with post-industrial slag and colliery spill to create 11 hectares of new landscape. more...
02 Mar 2010
Veolia drops injunction to bring fresh proceedings against Thurrock Council Veolia Environmental Services has withdrawn its application for a High Court injunction against Thurrock Council and is instead launching fresh legal proceedings. A Veolia Environmental Services spokesperson said: “We are issuing fresh legal proceedings against Thurrock Council in the Chancery Division of the High Court. These new proceedings relate to what we believe to be the council’s unlawful termination of the procurement process. We are also maintaining and pursuing our damages claim against the council, issued on February 8.” more...
The Government must close the “legal loophole” to protect council tax payers from picking up the bill from Schedule 2 premises such as schools and hospitals, according to the London Councils.Its call follows on from a joint statement by four Government departments urging public bodies like hospitals and schools not to seek changes to the way their rubbish is collected to take advantage of the service provided by councils for local residents (see MRW story).
Two fly-tipping brothers described as the “scourge of the capital” were sentenced to community penalties at Wood Green Crown Court on February 23. Peter O’Donoghue and James O’Donoghue had pleaded guilty to collecting money from householders to take away furniture and electrical appliances before dumping it in streets across Haringey and Enfield, in north London.
Council job cuts will not affect waste services in Leciestershire Leicestershire County Council has said that frontline waste services will not be affected despite its plans to 650 of its full-time staff redundant over the next four years. The reason for the planned job cuts comes down to the need to reduce public spending following the recession. more...
25 Feb 2010
BDR Waste Partnership selects two companies Two firms have been shortlisted for the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham Waste Partnership private finance initiative after the decision was delayed by a month. The chosen firms are Sita Lend Lease and 3SE, which is a consortium of Shanks Group and Scottish and Southern Energy. Earth Tech Skanska and AmeyCespa lost out on the recent round of bidding. more...
24 Feb 2010
Lowest council tax rises in England since 1993 could cause problems for waste collections Council tax in England for the financial year 2010/11 is expected to rise by the lowest percentage since 1993, according to a new survey. However, this news has been met with concern from some quarters who are worried that such small increases in council tax will place financial strain on local authorities and force subsequent cuts to frontline services such as waste collections. more...
Local authority bodies have called for councils to be able to charge for the disposal of waste amid the release of a position statement on the Schedule 2 Regulations published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and other Government departments affected by the legislation. Defra is currently reviewing the Schedule 2 of the Controlled Waste Regulations. Under the regulations, local authorities have the power to charge for the collection of waste from properties such as schools and hospitals. However, councils do not have legal powers to charge for waste treatment or disposal from Schedule 2 premises.
Following the launch of the boiler scrappage scheme in England last month, the Welsh Assembly Government has announced plans for a similar scheme in Wales, beginning on April 1. From this date over 60s living in Wales with inefficient G-rated boilers will be eligible to apply for a £500 voucher towards the cost of replacing their old boiler with a new A-rated one.
Derby City Council has been forced to spend £50,000 on extra efforts to resolve problems with its new recycling collection system. The council launched a change to its refuse collections in January in order to make rounds more efficient and increase recycling rates by adding an extra 6,000 properties to its kerbside recycling service.
M&S announces local authority recycling partnerships High-street retailer M&S has announced four recycling partnerships with UK local authorities to help councils collect an additional 60,000 tonnes of recyclable material per year by 2015. The announcement comes as part of the M&S Plan A eco-initiative and is set to significantly increase kerbside recycling in the four partnership areas. more...
18 Feb 2010
Performance failure notice for Greyhound Recycling Dublin City Council has confirmed that its Environment and Engineering Department has issued a performance failure notice against Greyhound Recycling and Recovery in relation to its failure to collect green bins in January and February of this year. The notice was served on February 12 following action from the four Dublin local authorities after some homes in Dublin were left without a collection for over a month. more...
18 Feb 2010
Wasting leaflets to ask residents about waste A London Borough council which sent out 33,000 questionnaires to ask its residents about recycling only received 3,100 responses, meaning that over 29,000 questionnaires were wasted. Lambeth Borough Council’s recycling consultation saw only 9.4% of the leaflets returned as the majority of residents failed to respond to the questionnaire. more...
17 Feb 2010
Additional sites consultation for South London Waste Partnership Residents and businesses are being asked to give their views on eight additional sites which could be used for waste management purposes in South London. The South London Waste Partnership, a joint initiative between the boroughs of Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton, is currently in the process of identifying potential sites that are suitable for waste management. more...
Local authorities could soon be required to provide information on how quickly they respond to reports of fly-tipping, if a new bill is passed. The bill was presented to the House of Commons on February 9 by Member of Parliament for Enfield North, Joan Ryan. Although local authorities now have increased powers to take action against fly-tippers Ryan feels that fly-tipping remains a big problem in her constituency.
Government announces proposals for Exeter to take charge of its own waste "destiny" Exeter City Council will be “in charge of its own destiny” in relation to waste management if it becomes a unitary authority, according to its head of cleansing services Mike Trim. Trim’s views come after Local Government Minister Rosie Winterton recently announced that Exeter along with Norwich had been selected for unitary status. Speaking to MRW, Trim said in practice, waste management should not create any major problems if Exeter becomes a unitary authority. more...
15 Feb 2010
Veolia seeks High Court injunction against Thurrock Council Veolia Environmental Services is seeking a High Court injunction against Thurrock Council in Essex after it awarded its bin collection contract to its own in-house bid. Veolia has been in charge of Thurrock’s bin collection services for seven years under a large contract, which incorporated kerbside collections, collecting recyclates, green waste processing, residual waste disposal and managing household waste recycling centres. The contract with Veolia is up for renewal in April. more...
Members of staff from Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council have been caught dropping off scrap metal at an illegally-run transfer yard. Electrical recycling firm C Soar and Sons operations manager Dale Evans told MRW that his staff had witnessed council workers dropping off scrap metal and beer kegs in a council van at a travellers site on Tank Row, Stairfoot, Barnsley. Members of staff from C Soar and Sons took a registration number of the van.
Shortlisted bidders both propose EfW for Leeds A new Energy from Waste facility could be built in Leeds after Leeds City Council announced that it has cut the list of bidders for its waste PFI contract to just two. Both of the contenders have said that EfW will be their chosen method of dealing with the city’s residual waste. The two shortlisted bidders are Aire Valley Environmental and Veolia Environmental Services Aurora. more...
08 Feb 2010
Consultation on potential waste sites in Wiltshire and Swindon People living in Wiltshire and Swindon are invited to have their say on potential sites for managing rubbish in the region over the next 15 years. A total of 52 potential sites have been earmarked for a variety of uses including recycling, landfill and waste treatment. more...
08 Feb 2010
Equipment installation begins at Greenstar Atlas MRF Greenstar UK has begun installing equipment at its Atlas plant, which is to be London’s ‘largest’ materials recycling facility. Since construction of the building finished at the 250,000 tonnes per year facility, work has begun on installing over 1,600 tonnes of steelwork and processing equipment. A waste transfer station is also located onsite to process a further 250,000 tonnes of waste annually once the facility is complete. more...
04 Feb 2010
New Luton plant for laminate packaging recycling Waste firms or producers looking to recycle their laminate packaging waste such as drink cartons, toothpaste tubes and coffee sachets can now test this at a new engineering facility in Luton. more...
Local authorities will be willing to help retailers increase battery recycling but the onus to provide collection facilities should be put on the producer not the councils, according to the Local Government Association.From February 1, UK retailers which sell more than 32kg of portable batteries per year (equivalent of one four-pack of AA batteries a day) in an individual store, over the internet or via mail order, are obliged to take back used batteries from the public free of charge. The British Retail Consortium argued that retailers should not be expected to bear the entire responsibility
Six week wait for recycling collections in Havant Residents in some parts of Hampshire have waited up to six weeks to have their recycling bins emptied. Havant Borough Council cited bad weather as the reason for recycling collections being initially halted. However some people are still waiting to have their recyclables collected despite the better weather. more...
03 Feb 2010
Viridor to invest £800M in Scotland's 'green' infrastructure Viridor is investing up to £800 million in Scotland’s green infrastructure, with much of it going into waste and recycling. In a step which will boost Scotland’s efforts to reach its zero waste to landfill goal, Viridor is financing the development of new cutting-edge waste infrastructure. Already, £600 million of the investment has been earmarked; with £250 million being used to build a residual waste facility in the west of Scotland and three new plants - which use ‘bespoke’ technologies - to be built at £80 million each. The remaining balance will be use to enhance current facilities and finance acquisitions to drive business development. more...
03 Feb 2010
Residual waste figures revealed for Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire The amount of residual rubbish that may be produced in Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire over the next 30 years has been revealed. Residual rubbish refers to that which cannot be economically re-used, recycled or composted. A Waste Flow Model has been created by Project Transform to look at how much rubbish people are likely to produce and how much of this can be recycled. more...
02 Feb 2010
Local authorities may have to reassess waste infrastructure solutions, according to industry figures Local authorities may have to assess how waste infrastructure can be developed, according to industry figures, after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed only one major waste PFI project reached financial close in 2009. While another PFI project and two PPP projects were scheduled to close last year, the Greater Manchester Waste PFI was the only major waste project signed off in 2009. more...
02 Feb 2010
Sterecycle to invest £10 million in UK waste plants Waste recycling technology company Sterecycle has raised £10 million of investment to build more of its recycling plants which use autoclave technology. The firm plans to invest part of the funds into its Yorkshire plant to double its capacity from 100,000 tonnes of waste each year to 200,000 tonnes of waste each year by the end of 2010. Waste will come from Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham local authorities along with some commercial waste. more...
02 Feb 2010
New recycling centre in Merseyside A new £1.5million household waste recycling centre has won approval in Merseyside.The centre, which will be built at the northern end of Knowsley Industrial Park, replaces an existing site 300 metres away.It will provide more modern recycling facilities and the capacity to receive 15,000 tonnes of household waste and recyclable materials each year.
Veolia wins huge Westminster waste contract Veolia Environmental Services has been named the preferred bidder to take on Westminster City Council’s £518M waste management contract. It is one of the UK’s largest waste, recycling and street cleansing contracts and will last for seven years, with a possible seven year extension. more...
Local authorities could save £1 million if they recycle their wheeled bins instead of throwing them in landfill, according to plastic recycling firm Luxus. The Lincolnshire-based firm pays local authorities money for the wheeled bins it receives from them and has a contract with 30 local authorities across the country.
