Nottingham-based waste management experts Wastecycle will invest £2.5 million and double the capacity of their materials recycling facility at Colwick, in the city’s eastern suburbs. As it stands, the MRF currently has capacity enough to sort roughly 30,000 tonnes of dry recyclable waste a year. With help from the investment, this will be extended to 60,000 tonnes per year. Equipment that includes a ballistic separator will be installed by KMH Ltd, an Irish company. The investment is to be made in accordance with the new five-year contract that was won by Wastecycle for sorting dry recyclables on the behalf of Nottingham’s city ... Full Story

  A small Canadian outfit is attempting to change the way plastic is recycled through a pilot plant prepared to test a new process of reusing the polystyrene that helps to make coffee cups, packing material, and food trays. Switchable Solutions Inc, which is a joint venture commercialising the new recycling method, says that its industrial-scale pilot will begin operation in around a year's time. It should be able to recycle at least 2,000 tonnes' worth of polystyrene per year in a complex process the firms says is considerably more environmentally-friendly than the existing methods practised at present. Very little ... Full Story

 The British Polythene Industries (BPI) packaging group has announced that it is stepping up recycling investment in a bid to cut costs. The rising price of oil has helped increase the cost of raw materials by £45 million in 2010 for the group, putting serious pressure on margins.   BPI has, however, announced that their annual pre-tax profits are up by nearly £12 million on the previous year to almost £17 ... Full Story

Motorola, British Land and Mothercare have joined a group of hundreds of other companies which are making a pledge to cut CO2 emissions. The Carbon Trust announced today that the three firms have been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard for measuring, cutting and promising to further reduce their output of greenhouse gases. According to the trust, the 500 members of the group have saved £165 million in fuel bills between them so far and represent 18 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from UK businesses. Harry Morrison, who is the manager of the programme, said Britain is now seeing a real momentum ... Full Story

Five major British restaurants have committed to becoming greener in the hope of making the industry more sustainable. D&D London, Prezzo, Ping Pong, Le Pain Quotidien and Las Iguanas have this week all pledged to join the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA). The scheme was launched last year in the hope of improving the greenness of restaurants which is one of the country’s most unsustainable enterprises. At present, the SRA has around 500 members, including some of Britain’s most famous restaurants, such as Benares, Moro and Le Manoir. The organisation however described this week’s new members as significant in the fight to get ... Full Story

British business leaders think of Germany as ahead of the UK in terms of green economic growth, according to a new study.  Of the 700 bosses questioned by the Carbon Trust, only one out of eight thought that the UK is ready to take advantage of the £3.2 trillion market for low carbon goods and services. In fact, business leaders in the UK ranked age-old enemies Germany as the most likely country to take advantage of green initiatives, putting Britain on a level pegging with Japan, China and the US. Only a third of the respondents said they were investing in ... Full Story

General Motors announced that it achieved its goal for global operations, which it had outlined in 2008, to convert 50 per cent of 145 existing plants to a landfill-free status before the end of 2010. At present, the company now has 52 per cent of its plants that operate on a zero-landfill policy. The equivalent of 76 of its facilities, worldwide, either reduce, reuse or convert the waste to energy or other reusable items. The first facility for GM to achieve a zero-landfill status was an engine plant in Michigan, which reached its status in 2005. On average, ... Full Story

A new Environment Agency report shows that overall businesses are doing better at moving towards sustainability despite difficult economic times. The Greener Business report, published yesterday, states that poor performance from some industries, particularly waste firms, has been causing the most pollution incidents across the sectors that fall under the Agency’s care. However, the report, which covers England and Wales, also says that the majority of operators have shown improvement in their attention to sensitive environmental issues. Over half of the sites that fall under the Environment Agency’s jurisdiction earned a top ‘A’ rating from the governing body. This is a 47 ... Full Story

UK high street retailers Marks & Spencer announced its on track to reach its sustainability goals by 2015, which will make it the world’s first major retailer to go 100 per cent sustainable. According to the grocer’s half-year results, it is inline to meet half of its 180 total sustainability targets by next April, which puts the retailer way ahead of schedule. Former chief executive of the company Sir Stuart Rose founded the scheme, called Plan A, three years ago. So far, since its inception, the company has improved its fuel efficiency by 10 per cent introducing ‘teardrop’ trailers designed to ... Full Story

Adnams’ brewing waste is now used to produce biogas that feeds back into the national grid. The brewery, based in Suffolk, uses the left over methane from its malted barley to generate a biogas using the process of anaerobic digestion. With the new technology, the brewing company hopes to provide an environmental fuel for its lorry fleet as well as supply natural gas back to the grid. The plant will also utilise local food waste, including the scraps from seven local supermarkets. According to the brewery, waste from just 600 pints of beer can generate enough gas supply for one home per ... Full Story

Marks & Spencer announced today that it would begin using recycled polyester to make its more than 300 million clothing labels each year. The move will feature a message on each label – ‘Recycle with Oxfam’ – in a bid to make the clothing range more environmentally friendly. The labels will also serve as a reminder to customers to use the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange, which offers rewards to customers that donate old clothing to Oxfam stores in exchange for an M&S money-off voucher. Two million garments each year are recycled through the initiative and M&S – has part of its ... Full Story

Repak’s Recycling Week will kick-off on Monday by targeting recycling in the workplace in an attempt to encourage more workers to divert waste from landfill while on the job. According to the packaging recycle group, more than 20 kilos of packaging waste were recycled each second in Ireland last year. The results were announced at Repak’s launch for its recycle week initiative and place Ireland in no. 8 for packaging recycling rates out of the EU member states. Dr Andrew Hetherington, CEO of Repak said that last year each household in Ireland recycled on average 144 kilos of cans, boxes, bottles and ... Full Story