News round-up July 2018

Dumpers force removal of recycling point

South Northamptonshire Council has been forced to remove its household recycling point at Oxford Road Tesco in Brackley due to continued illegal dumping of waste. It suspects that traders are responsible.

Dermot Bambridge, portfolio holder for Environmental Services, said: “The disposal of trade waste is not funded by any tax, it is a business overhead like any other and we cannot allow recycling points to be used by unscrupulous tradespeople to boost their profit margins.”

Press release

Clothing junked due to minor faults

A survey of 2,000 people for Staffordshire firm Terry’s Fabrics has found that 25% of respondents would discard an item of clothing simply due to loose stitching and half would throw away meat products one day past their sell-by date

The research looked to discover how easily people would throw away items including clothing, home furnishings and food, and found people would throw away even easily-repaired garments.

Press release

Firm claims first for collection app

Bukkawaste has launched what it says is the UK’s first online waste collection service. An app will allow consumers to pick a day and time for their waste to be collected.

A notification will be sent to confirm the booking. The service is available for a set price and no contract is required. The app is at present available in Greater Manchester and part of Merseyside.

Press release

Organic wates deal in Scotland

Enva has bought for an undisclosed sum South Lanarkshire-based organic wastes firm GP Green Recycling, which recycles these into a soil conditioner and compost.

Enva executive chairman Niall Wall said: “Adding businesses with specialist expertise has been a central part of our growth strategy, and we aim to continue investing in companies focused on the recovery and recycling of valuable raw materials.”

Press release

EA warns over empty building crooks

The Environment Agency has warned that waste criminals are using empty industrial units to dispose of thousands of tonnes of illegal waste, much of it hazardous.

It urged landlords to be vigilant for criminals who posed as legitimate tenants but left landlords to pay thousands of pounds in clear up costs.

Press release

Sheffield firm doubles premises size

Sheffield-based confidential waste shredding, archiving and recycling firm Russell Richardson is to double the size of its premises by moving to a 30,000 square feet facility at Tinsley.

The company said that it now handled more than 200,000 tonnes of paper waste a week, more than double the volume seen two years ago.

Press release

Wight AD plant sold

Foresight has bought a 2.5mw anaerobic digestion plant on Isle of Wight for an undisclosed sum.

The 24 acres site at Arreton has a combined heat and power plant to provide 250kw of electrical power generation capacity. Foresight now owns 20 AD plants in the UK and five in Germany.

Press release

Quality Recognition Awards winners

The Resource Association’s annual Quality Recognition Awards were made during its summer lecture event held at the National Liberal Club in London.

This year’s awards recipients (pictured) were:

• Hertfordshire Waste Partnership - nominated by Palm Recycling
• HW Martin Waste - nominated by Novelis Recycling
• J&B Recycling - nominated by the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment
• Newsprinters - nominated by UPM-Kymmene (UK)
• Next plc - nominated by DS Smith Recycling

Awards are nominated by the Resource Association’s reprocessor members. They must meet relevant industry quality standards with no loads of recycled material supplied rejected by the reprocessor during the 2017/18 financial year.

Campaigner Natalie Fee, founder of City to Sea, gave this year’s lecture.

Award recipients (L-R): Robbie Warden (UPM), Kirsten Roberts and Durk Reyner (Hertfordshire Waste Partnership), Daiva Janckeviciene (HW Martin), Melvin Colbourne (Next Plc), Gerard Kellett (Newsprinters), Natalie Fee (City to Sea)

Press release

Coca-Cola moves to rPET

Coca-Cola has said all large PET bottles, including the Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta brands will start to move to 40% rPET this year as part of the target of eventually moving the whole PET portfolio to 50% rPET.

The company also said it would support a ‘well-designed’ deposit return scheme, but said VAT should not be charged on this, and that there should be a common approach across Great Britain run by one not-for-profit management company.

 Packaging News

Polymer firm raises £5m

Worn Again Technologies has said it has raised investment of £5m for its polymer recycling technology for the clothing industry.

This can separate, decontaminate and extract polyester polymers from non-reusable textiles, plastic bottles and packaging, to go back into clothing products, and cellulose from cotton.

Chief executive Cyndi Rhoades said, “There are enough textiles and plastic bottles ‘above ground’ and in circulation today to meet our annual demand for raw materials to make new clothing and textiles.”

Press release

First shipment from Ward’s dock

Metal and waste management specialist Ward has shipped its first vessel of scrap from its new deep sea port at Immingham. The MV Fearless has five storage holds and four onboard cranes. It will sail almost 20,000 tonnes of scrap to Nemrut Bay, Turkey.

Since opening the dock in April 2018, Ward has employed five full time, permanent staff and invested in new infrastructure, site upgrades and plant and equipment.

Press release

Acquisition for Attero

Attero Group has bought Transwaste Recycling & Aggregates for an undisclosed sum in a move it said would increase processing capacity to more than one million tonnes.

Transwaste has a turnover of approximately £35m and employs 60 staff who will transfer to Attero and the Transwaste brand will continue to operate.

Press release

Safety award for Hadfield

Hadfield Wood Recyclers has won a gold standard award in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents’’ (RoSPA) health and safety awards. This recognises achievement in health and safety management systems.

Managing director Geoff Hadfield said: “We have invested heavily in our employees and our three sites to ensure we have first class health and safety facilities, practices and procedures in place.”

From left: Graham Littlewood, production manager; Steve Greenwood, remote sites manager, Matt Hilton, group SHEQ manager

Press release

New look for biogas body

The World Biogas Association (WBA), the global trade body for the anaerobic digestion and biogas industry, has unveiled a new logo intended to reflect members’ contribution to the circular economy across different sectors around the world. It was launched at the UK AD & World Biogas Expo 2018 in Birmingham.

Press release

Biffa backs innovation show

Biffa is sponsoring the NWG Innovation Festival at Newcastle Racecourse in High Gosforth Park.

The event runs from 9-13 July and has been organised by Northumbrian Water Group. It encourages attendees to apply creative approaches to solve 15 issues affecting the environment.Biffa manages waste for both Northumbrian Water Group and Newcastle Racecourse.

Press release

New grab wagon for midlands firm

Wastecycle has taken delivery of a £40,000 new grab wagon, which will allow it to expand its waste collection services.

The Volvo, which features a clamshell grab will enable Wastecycle to work with construction companies, site managers and homeowners who have large amounts waste to dispose of but cannot use a skip.

Wastecycle operates from Nottingham and Leicester, from which it processes more than 500,000 tonnes of commercial, construction and domestic waste each year.

Press release

Metals specialist chooses Lanes

ELG Group, part of the German Haniel Group, has chosen Lanes Group to provide drainage maintenance services across its six UK operating sites including its Sheffield headquarters.

The company specialises in trading and recycling materials for the stainless steel industry, and superalloys, titanium, and carbon fibres.

 Press release

Speciality steels producer Liberty House Group had added a Leibherr LH 120 gantry-mounted material handler to material handling fleet as its expects to process more than 500,000 tonnes of recyclable material at its Rotherham plant.

Ryan Stancil, mechanical section engineer at Liberty House said the firm had not previously been able to afford such a machine but “the overall package from Liebherr far outweighed that of its competition and, coupled with the amazing build quality, left us in no doubt as to our clear favourite”.

Press release