News round-up 14/10

Veolia caught in Ebola row

Louisiana’s attorney general Buddy Caldwell is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent Veolia Environmental Services bringing the ashes of an Ebola sufferer’s possessions into the state.

USA Today reports that Veolia took six truckloads of items from the Dallas apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan had been staying to its incinerator at Port Arthur in Texas.

Veolia was then due to take the resulting ash to a landfill site in Louisiana, but Caldwell said: “There are too many unknowns at this point, and it is absurd to transport potentially hazardous Ebola waste across state lines. This situation is certainly unprecedented and we want to approach it with the utmost caution. We just can’t afford to take any risks when it comes to this deadly virus.”

USA Today

Scottish councillor suspended

Former Scotland rugby international Alastair Cranston has been suspended from Scottish Borders Council (SBC) for three months for failing to disclose that he was a director at two anaerobic digestion companies when backing the technology at council meetings.

An SBC spokesperson said: “This matter has been fully investigated through the appropriate channels and we note the decision of the Standards Commission for Scotland.”

Press Release

Fly-tipper fined £5,000

Anthony Joyce, of Redbridge Hollow, has been fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £2,719 in costs after illegally dumping waste he had been employed to dispose of responsibly.

A member of the public had employed Joyce to remove waste following household renovation work, which he ended up fly-tipping.

Cllr Roger Cox, Vale of White Horse District Council’s cabinet member for health and housing, said: “We won’t stand for people dumping rubbish illegally like this; it’s unpleasant, antisocial and unacceptable. This case also highlights that anyone disposing of waste needs to go through the correct channels to ensure that the waste does not end of fly tipped as in this case.”

CIWM Journal

Axion joins landfill mining consortium

Axion Consulting has signed up to the European Enhanced Landfill Mining Consortium, triggered in part by approaches from land developers investigating the possibility of retrieving resources from former landfill sites.

The Manchester-based resource recovery specialist said that joining the European-wide network of public and private sector organisations gave it a framework to respond better to requests.

Axion’s principle engineer Simon Wilkinson said: “The consortium brings together diverse and complementary skill sets - from industry and academia to private companies and Government organisations - with the common aim of examining how we can mine the materials we buried in the past.”

Press Release