Materials Recycling Week
2 December 2005
View all stories from this issue.
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£32,000 fine for illegal waste transfer station
A Reading skip yard has been ordered to pay more than £32,000 after pleading guilty to six offences including the illegal operation of a waste transfer station. Reynolds Excavations was fined at Reading Magistrates for keeping, sorting and disposing of waste by burning without a waste management licence, for failing to prevent waste escaping and failing to ensure proper waste transfer notes were completed. After the Environment Agency (EA) received complaints of sm -
BMW question the value of environmental legislation
Car manufacturer BMW hit out at the “time wasting bureaucracy and administrative burden” of environmental legislation last week. Speaking at the launch of its first UK environmental report, BMW Group UK director of environmental affairs Roger Twiney said the company welcomed new environmental regulations when they were “timely, non-bureaucratic, appropriate and effective”. But continued: “Sadly, this is all too often not the case”. -
Feature: Competition from the continent increases
The closure announcement from Sunderland Paper has had an immediate dampening effect on best whites prices in the UK. Noting that the mill was a large consumer of best whites No 1 and No 2, a leading industry spokesman commented: “Best whites is now an export grade because all the other UK users really only take small volumes.” Towards the end of November, the best whites price was said to have fallen by some £5 per tonne and further downward pressure was w -
Feature: Efficiency abounds
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and the Construction Products Association (CPA) have set up a joint efficiency group to identify ways in which construction product manufacturers and suppliers can help the public sector cut waste from the construction process and achieve better value in construction procurement. The steering group for the project is jointly chaired by David McMeehan, director of construction and FM efficiency at OGC, and Michael Ankers, CPA chief executive. -
Feature: Getting onboard
Affordable housing, regeneration developments and growth strategies: the UK is currently rife with construction and building developments in a bid to boost local communities, close the north-south economic divide and address housing shortages. But with the announcement of any construction project, news of the environmental price always follows close behind. Interest in making construction more sustainable is growing as are the com-panies offering new solutions for was -
Feature: Home from home
Faced with a glut of ugly tower blocks on estates that are rapidly becoming deserted, the Germans, with their usual efficiency and engineering zeal, are unfazed and are simply recycling the flats and making them into desirable housing stock. Housing estates with blocks of flats known as plattenbauen, or ‘slab houses’ – a common sight in east Germany – are the fodder for this project, taking a design low point of Germany’s history and giving it a sustai -
Feature: How safe are your staff?
Last month the Health and Safety Commission published the latest statistics on workplace injury and work- related ill health in the UK. Health and Safety Statistics 2004/05 includes reports on progress against the targets set in the Revitalising Health and Safety Strategy, and reveals a number of reductions on last year. The main features of the statistics show that there were around 220 fatal injuries to workers in 2004/05, a decrease of 7% on the 2003/04 figure of 2 -
Feature: Inspiring designers to use recycled
Reasons that have held the construction industry back from using more recycled materials have included a lack of knowledge about the products that are available – their durability and cost and what extra time and resources would be needed to source the material. Recycled materials need to be specified at the appropriate development stage, and designers and architects need to know what options are available to them. Work by Creative Resource, a three-year res -
Feature: No metal fatigue in China
The secondary metals industry in China is growing in impetus and with fast-rising production figures and plans, is becoming increasingly significant. In 2004, production of secondary metals reached 3.2 million tonnes, which accounted for 22.4% of the total production of non-ferrous metals. At the recent Fifth Secondary Metals International Forum in Guangzhou, China, Nonferrous Metals Industry Association vice-chairman Wang Gongmin said: “Domestic recycling of scrap -
Feature: Seeking Sustainable Solutions
Despite recent significant improvements in the use of recycled and secondary aggregates, a number of barriers are hindering uptake. However, the Building Research Establishment (BRE) is working on several initiatives to push sustainability further up the agenda. This month, the organisation announced a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-funded scoping study, which aims to solve some of the problems asso-ciated with achieving cleaner, more effective and efficient deconstr -
Feature: September sees stocks shift
September produced easily the largest monthly dip in UK recovered paper consumption in the year to date. The total volume consumed by the mills slid from a shade over 390,000 tonnes in September 2004 to 366,077 tonnes in the same month of 2005 — equivalent to a drop of 6.2%. Intake at the mills suffered an even more substantial decline while UK paper and board production fell by 5.4%. The month also witnessed some major UK mill stock movements, according to latest statistics from th -
Feature: The road less travelled
Work is underway on the UK’s largest road renewal recycling scheme, which is due to be completed by Easter 2006. The £8 million works on the five-mile dual carriageway of the A38 between Drybridge and Peartree junctions is in need of full replacement. The project is taking place because the road material has become brittle and segregated, causing cracking to appear in the carriageway. This has led to a rapid deterioration within a matter of weeks, necessit -
Former refugee scoops prize for recycling business
A former child refugee who fled the war-torn Balkans has scooped a prestigious national award for his computer recycling business. Peter Paduh, who came to Britain alone from the war-stricken region at 15 years of age, has been named the Young Business Person of the Year. After learning English, Paduh gained a computer science degree and launched Maxitech, providing environmental services for firms with redundant computers in 2003. Paduh, now 28, said: “ -
Government to give Mayor of London more powers
The Government is considering giving the Mayor of London more control of specific functions such as waste management according to proposals issued today. In the consultation released by the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister, ministers have indicated that where a convincing case can be made that change would improve the planning and delivery of services currently carried out by boroughs, they would consider granting the Mayor more power. Minister for London Jim Fitzpat -
Merseyside councils agree to pay only for waste they produce
Merseyside’s five local councils have signed an agreement, due to come into effect from April 2006, ensuring they only pay disposal charges for waste their councils produce. The agreement means that each council will pay a tonnage levy for waste disposal, which will put an end to the previous inequitable charging system based on the number of band D properties in each area. Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (MWDA) chair councillor John Fletcher said: &ldquo -
New guidelines on the Hazardous Waste Regulations
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published new guidance on the Hazardous Waste Regulations. The rules which came into effect in July this year govern the most dangerous wastes and have been amended to incorporate three new guidance notes. The first relates to offences under the regulations, setting out in detail potential convictions, related fines and prison terms for breaking rules. The amendments also cover the provisions m -
New report predicts heavy fines for the UK
The UK will not hit its 2010 and 2013 landfill diversion targets according to a newly published report. The 2005 Caledonian Economics Financial Review of the UK Waste Management Industry states that as a consequence, the country faces the threat of heavy fines from Brussels. The report suggests that the UK waste industry lacks the financial capacity to take on the additional commitments required to achieve the 2010 and 2013 targets. It states that given the ti -
Paper body reacts angrily to gas claims
The paper industry has reacted angrily to government claims that they are in some way responsible for the massive gas price increases currently afflicting them. Intensive energy users were partly blamed for price rises that are costing the industry millions of pounds for “choosing” to buy gas on the spot market. The Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) head of environment David Gillett said: “If the Government was correct in saying that industries su -
Plant begins reprocessing farm plastics
A new €1.25 million plant for reprocessing contaminated farm plastics from around the country was seen in action by local collection schemes this week. The Integrated Polymers plant, in Rhymney, South Wales, has an annual output capacity of about 15,000 tonnes. As part of the FarmPlas Network, the plant will reprocess farm plastics collected through local collection schemes around the country. Contaminated material delivered to the plant will be shredded before -
Tough new measures for abandoned cars in Wales
Tough new measures have been introduced to tackle the blight of abandoned cars on the streets of Wales. The legislation from the Welsh Assembly Government considerably reduces the amount of notice that has to be given by local authorities and police before they remove abandoned vehicles. The notice required for vehicles in such a condition that they should be destroyed has been reduced from seven days to 24 hours, while for all other vehicles the disposal notice is reduc -
WRAP undergoes big re-organisation
A major re-organisation is being undertaken at the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) as part of its new business plan following confirmation of its funding until 2008. Instead of focussing on specific materials streams, WRAP will now concentrate for the next two years on areas where it believes it can make the biggest difference. These are: the construction sector, retail, organic waste, land remediation as well as looking at behavioural changes and how to deve
