Recycling | SkipHireMagazine.co.uk

Posts Tagged ‘Recycling’

Vince Cable reveals £80m investment in small-scale waste infrastructure

Posted on: May 16th, 2012 by Sam H

It has been revealed by Business Secretary Vince Cable that the UK’s Green Investment Bank has committed to an investment of £80 million to support the small scale waste infrastructure sector. The investments are planned to go towards the development of waste reprocessing and recycling facilities, as well as energy from waste projects and pre-treatment projects.

BIS has announced that every investment will require match funding, which will mean that an additional £80 million of capital will be infused into the sector. Following the EU state aid approval, BIS is currently handling the Green Investment Bank’s three billion pounds in investments ahead of the institution’s formal launch.

“These first investments are a landmark moment. They represent a great opportunity to unlock substantial commercial investment in green technologies and infrastructure,” said Vince Cable.

“The government has committed to setting the UK firmly on course towards a green and growing economy and today is another important step in that direction.

“Investing directly now shows that we are not just sitting on our hands while we wait for the UK Green Investment Bank to receive state aid approval.”

The funds available are more likely to be used to support small to mid-sized waste management projects rather than the very large waste-to-energy projects. Out of the initial funding given, £50 million will be managed by Foresight Group, with the other remaining £30 million to be managed by Greensphere Capital.

Green Investment Bank are going to target five investment areas with the funds they are in control of – two of which are waste recycling and processing and energy from waste generation. The other investment areas include offshore wind projects, non-domestic energy efficiency and green deal energy efficiency scheme.

A spokesperson for the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management said: “It’s really encouraging that waste has been identified as a priority. This is a drop in the ocean compared to the level of investment that will be needed by 2020, so the ability of the bank to leverage further investment will be very important. But this is a very welcome development and we look forward to seeing the lending criteria and which investments will be selected.”

Tyre recycler prosecuted for illegal exports

Posted on: April 18th, 2012 by Sam H

The owner of a Devon recycling firm has been found guilty of illegally exporting used car tyres to Vietnam and will have to pay £2,590 in costs. Paul Avery, the owner of Avery Tyre Recycling, was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work after the case, which was brought forward by the Environment Agency (EA), came to an end.

Officers from the EA visited Hill Barton Business Park near Exeter on 12 May 2011 and are reported to have discovered thousands of waste tyres at the premises of Mr Avery’s company. It was also said that some of the tyres had already been made up into bales, whilst others were still in loose piles.

According to the EA, under the terms of an Environment Agency exemption, Avery Tyre Recycling was only allowed to store and treat 40 tonnes of tyres per week at the site. Officers estimated there were approximately four times as many tyres as there should have been at the time of their inspection.

Despite Mr Avery’s paperwork highlighting the container movements from his site at Hill Barton Business Park to Vietnam, he told investigating officers that he did not know where his shipments of waste tyres went to or what they were being used for. The recycling firm owner was warned that he should not be accepting any more waste tyre on his site and to also stop exporting.

Upon the officers’ return to the site on 29 July 2011, they found an estimate of 225 tonnes of tyres in both bales and loose piles. The EA reported that the site was so full that “it was impossible to access it by vehicle.” Avery claimed that his tyre baling machine had broken down and that he was fully aware the number of tyres onsite had increased.

Through the use of UK freight handling companies, it is estimated that the defendant exported a total of approximately 32,000 waste tyres. They were shipped by container, with each one containing around 3,000 tyres. Vietnam has made it clear to the European Union that it does not want waste tyres from Europe – the export of tyres to Vietnam is actually prohibited under the Transfrontier Shipping Regulations.

The motives behind Mr Avery’s actions were apparently financially motivated as the illegal shipment of tyres allows exporters to undercut legitimate waste operators and deprives the UK waste tyre industry of raw materials. By failing to apply for an appropriate environmental permit, he had avoided paying fees that came to a total of £5,521.

“The defendant has been in the waste tyre business for a number of years and should be well aware of the regulations, especially with regard to the export of tyres. He continued to keep excessive numbers of tyres at his premises despite being warned by the Agency. Operators who breach their authorisations have an unfair advantage over those who operate legitimately,” said Matt Lee for the Environment Agency.

Appearing before a District Judge in Exeter, Avery – of De La Rue Way, Exeter – pleaded guilty to running a waste operation without an environmental permit, contrary to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010, and also to illegally exporting waste tyres to Vietnam, an offence under Regulation 23 of the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007.

England’s first nappy recycling service launched

Posted on: April 4th, 2012 by Sam H

Cheshire West and Chester council is to become England’s first local authority to offer their residents a dedicated weekly kerbside nappy recycling service.

The UK’s first nappy recycling plant opened up in September 2011 in West Bromwich – run by Canadian company Knowaste – which allowed the service to be made possible.

From summer 2012, a free weekly ‘Nappy-cycle’ subscription service will initially run as a six-month pilot. At first, it is available in the Vale Royal area, but it is hoped that it will roll out across the West Cheshire area by the end of the year. There has also been an application submitted to the Government’s Weekly Collection Support Fund to fund the planned expansion.

There are around 56,000 households in the pilot area of Vale Royal that are being invited to subscribe to the service – this way, collections are targeted at properties that need and require it the most. The service will also be available to residents who need to dispose of adult incontinence products. Household that are subscribed to the service will be provided with a supply of collection sacks, as well as an outdoor storage container.

The new service will be delivered in partnership with May Gurney, the same company that was appointed last year to deliver the borough’s new recycling and waste collection service from April 2012.

The pilot is intended to complement the new Recycle First weekly collection of recycling and waste being rolled out across the borough over the coming months. Combined with the additional recyclable materials being introduced as part of Recycle First, it will enable households to recycle up to 80% of their waste.

The council’s executive member for community and environment, Councillor Lynn Riley, said: “In our borough alone, almost 5,000 tonnes of nappies go to landfill every year. Once there they can take up to 500 years to decompose.

“Now – for the first time – Cheshire West and Chester Council is to tackle the so-called ‘nappy mountain’ by taking advantage of cutting-edge recycling technology. The new trial service will allow us to recycle over 25 tonnes of nappies every week.

“I am sure our pioneering scheme will be watched with interest by local authorities across the country keen to follow our lead.”

All of the collected nappies will be bulked up and transported to Knowaste’s facility. The plant makes use of state-of-the-art technology to separate materials and sterilise them. The recovered materials from the whole process are plastic – which can be used to make products such as plastics, roof tiles, recycling bins and steel or wood substitute – and fibre – which is used for cardboard and industrial tubing.

Roy Brown, chief executive of Knowaste, said: “With the majority of the UK’s 1 million tonnes per annum of absorbent hygiene wastes generated at home, the West Cheshire weekly nappy recycling trial is heralding a new era in kerbside recycling and convenience for families.”

“We already work with the UK’s leading hygiene and washroom companies to recycle their commercial absorbent hygiene waste.

“Recycling domestic nappy waste has long been seen as a real challenge, Knowaste are looking forward to working with Cheshire West and Chester council to help them deliver this innovative new service which also delivers on carbon reduction.”

Other local authorities in Britain are now showing an interest in collecting nappies for recycling. The Welsh Government announced funding for a new and ‘innovative’ kerbside sort pilot in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, which includes nappy recycling.

University students dive into bins to improve recycling

Posted on: March 27th, 2012 by Sam H

When students at Grand Valley State University wanted to find out how well they recycled their waste, they jumped into the bins to look for themselves!

In late February, the students of the University took a week to analyse exactly what they were throwing away and how good they all were at recycling – all thanks to an initiative which started on the Holland Meijer Campus.

The idea came about last autumn when students and staff from the University’s Green Team – a group that monitor the environmental impact the organisation have – wondered how the brand new recycling programme — a collaboration with the Holland Rescue Mission — was coming along, said Lisa Miller, spokeswoman for the Holland Meijer Campus.

“We wanted to make sure we were giving them stuff,” Miller said of the partnership through which recycled products provide money and work for the mission’s job-training program.

In order to see how many recyclables were being shipped to the mission and how many were being thrown out, the team decided to go straight to the bins around the campus. They took out the bags of waste and ripped them open. According to Miller, what they found in there was rather shocking.

About 85-90 percent of what was put into the bins as waste for the landfill could have been sent away as recyclables. To combat this, the University made the drastic move of removing all bins from all of the classrooms and offices on the Holland campus.

Within five weeks of going without bins for their waste, the team checked out the contents of their bins again this November. They found that they had reduced the amount of thrown-out recyclable materials to about 25 percent of what it was before the bin-less plan.

Emily DeLano, a graduate assistant at the Holland Meijer Campus and coordinator of the dives, said the team found that fast food cups, wrappers from confectionary items, paper and drink cans were the items thrown in the waste most often.

Students on the GVSU Allendale campus, USA, this week emptied an eight-cubic-yard waste bin to sort the contents into recycle, compost and landfill piles and came across similar findings.

“We walked away with only two bags of materials that were for the landfill; the rest could have been recycled or composted,” said Cassandra Beach, vice president of the school’s Student Environmental Coalition.

“It’s great. Just as much as Allendale is asking us questions, we’re asking them questions.”

The dumpster dive took place as Grand Valley completes the first full week of Recyclemania, a 10-week, national competition among colleges and universities in America to collect the largest amount of recyclables and the least amount of landfill waste.

Among the Michigan colleges and universities participating in the competition, GVSU was in first place for composting and second place for waste minimization. During the first week of the competition in 2010, GVSU recycled 27 percent of its waste stream, and this year it’s at 38 percent – highlighting the vast improvement the University has made recently.

Major fire at Perth recycling plant

Posted on: March 16th, 2012 by Sam H

Perth recycling plant in Scotland has suffered a major fire, with 100 tonnes of paper and cardboard going up in flames.

Firefighters tackled the blaze as staff at Wyllie recycling and units surrounding the plant were evacuated for their safety due to the fire.

Tayside Fire claimed that their efforts to tackle the fire – which could be seen for miles around – had been “severely hampered” by exploding gas canisters. A lack of water within the area had also hindered the operation, according to the fire service.

Emergency services were called to the Inveralmond industrial estate at 07:40. At its top height, the fire caused a mile-high plume of black smoke; however the blaze was then brought under control. Another four buildings just by the recycling centre were also damaged by the heat and smoke.

Gerry Scott, 27, witnessed the incident as he was driving to work in Perth in the morning, he said he saw the smoke rising from the recycling plant in Ruthvenfield Way and pulled over to watch what was going on with other motorists and evacuated workers from the estate.

“You could feel the heat from it a long way back. Then there was a loud crack, like a car backfiring or fireworks going off, and that must have been some sort of gas canister,” said Mr Scott.

“You could clearly see bits of it flying through the air and the largest piece tore right through the roof of the factory and something like 60ft into the sky.

“As soon as we heard the bang we all legged it. People were running for their lives and it’s just as well they did because bits were landing near where they had been standing.”

Other motorists were reported to have said they could see the smoke from the blaze up to 20 miles away.

Tayside Fire and Rescue sent a combination of 10 fire engines and 70 firefighters – as well as an aerial ladder platform and a command support unit – from right across Perthshire to fight the blaze.

The blaze is not thought to be suspicious, though an investigation has been launched to discover the source.

A Tayside Police spokesman said residents who live nearby had been advised to keep their windows closed as smoke was blown across the area.

“At the fire’s height, fire units had to draw water from the nearby River Almond to help douse the blaze and up to 300 people were evacuated. All people have been accounted for and no-one was reported injured,” said the spokesman.

Scottish Water said people living near the incident may have had their water cut off or experienced low pressure, with the fire service having to tap into the mains supply for water to fight the blaze.

A spokesman Scottish Water added: “When supplies are fully restored customers may also experience some discolouration to their supply, this discolouration is harmless and will gradually disappear as the system returns to normal.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience and cooperation.”