In an attempt to raise recycling awareness among its residents, refuse collection vehicles throughout Charnwood have donned new adverts on their panels to promote local recycling initiatives. The panels are showing off their advertisements for Charnwood Borough Council's brown bin project, a campaign aimed at recycling garden waste. The panels, which measure 2.5m x 1.2m, are to be rotated every six months. They can be re-used year after year, adding another environmental element to the plan. Approximately 17,000 Charnwood residents already subscribe to the programme, which collects nearly 4,500 tonnes of garden waste each year. The garden waste is then composted. In March ... Full Story

The plans for the new mechanical biological treatment facility in Leicestershire have been submitted by Lafarge Aggregates. The facility will be designed by New Earth Solutions and the plans show that the facility will be "well screened from neighbouring properties". Lafarge Aggregates has been responsible for submitting the planning application for the advanced mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant to the Leicestershire county council. The application has been prepared and submitted in partnership with New Earth Solutions, a Dorset-based organisation who has developed "a range of processes for the biological treatment of commercial and municipal wastes". The application details an "integrated waste management ... Full Story

Environment Minister Joan Ruddock has announced that the Environment Agency has decided that the 250 metre buffer zone for open windrow composting sites is still valid. Mrs. Ruddock said that the length of the buffer zone had been reexamined due to concerns raised by Barnsley West and Penistone MP, Michael Clapham regarding about the hazards of bioaerosols. Clapham claims that the 250m buffer zone was too small and did not protect people living in close proximity to the composting sites from being subjected to bioaerosols and odours. It was noted, however, that figures vary widely depending on location. Mr. Clapham made reference ... Full Story

North Wales' first commercial scale composting facility, located in Dwyfor, recently opened under the watchful eye of the Gwynedd County Council. The £1.6 million "invessel composting facility", equipped with composting technology company TEG Environmental, is capable of treating 5,000 tonnes of waste a year using TEG's 10-cage Silo Cage system. TEG Environmental Chief Executive Mick Fishwick said: "Gwynedd county council is the first authority in North Wales to have introduced alternative technology for green and food waste disposal and we are pleased that they have chosen the TEG process." Gwyn Morris Jones, Gwynedd county council's head of Highways and Municipal Services, ... Full Story

People tend to know a lot about specific areas of recycling but may not think about exploring alternative methods of going green. Here are 5 questions posed by the EPA and Compost.org: 1. What is the impact of composting? Composting, the process of converting organic materials into soil, is a simple way to reduce garbage by one-third and preserve living organisms. Did you know tea bags, coffee grounds and corn husks can be composted? 2. Can print cartridges be recycled? Yes. In fact, many manufacturers offer print cartridge recycling free of charge. For example, HP offers free recycling for its ink and toner cartridges ... Full Story

A new waste management plan has been unveiled in Montreal with the intention of reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill sites every year. Gerald Tremblay, the mayor of Montreal disclosed at a press conference that the plan would cost two hundred million dollars and would take a decade to implement. There would be over forty measures in the plan all intended to help lower the amount of waste generated and raise the rate of recycling. One of the measures to be taken include the building of more composting plants as well as raising the collection of organic waste. ... Full Story

Major forces in the composting industry have put the Environment Agency under fire, accusing the group of have inconsistent attitudes in regards to the granting of exemption permits. Mike Thompson of Eco Sustainable Solutions is one person who has been called upon to explain how his group achieved exemptions form the Environment Agency when similar applications had been rejection. On Thursday, Mike Orr, of TEG Group, demanded an explanation at the Composting Association's Diversification and Site Solutions event in Kettering. Mr. Thompson’s explanation was simple. : "We do not have a special relationship with the EA," he said. "Anything we can do, ... Full Story

The district councillors in West Berkshire are gearing up to dramatically increase the local recycling rate. In a bid to do so they will be distributing free green wheelie bins to all residents over the course of the next three months. The green garden waste service will allow residents to decrease the amount of waste heading to landfills by composting grass cuttings, hedge trimmings and other garden waste. Geoff Findlay, West Berkshire’s executive councillor for environment and waste said: “This is an important part of the new scheme as it will give residents the opportunity to recycle green waste from their homes. "This ... Full Story

This month, during Compost Awareness Week, Agrivert, the Cherwell District Council and South Oxfordshire District Council gave away free compost across Oxfordshire. The week ran from May 4th to May 10th across the country. In order to help the public learn more about how successful composting is, Agrivert made compost available free of charge across Oxforshire. “We are delighted to be supporting the eighth national Compost Awareness Week,” said Alexander Maddan, MD of Agrivert.  “Agrivert has worked closely with Cherwell District Council and South Oxfordshire District Council to return composted green waste to the general public that will both raise awareness of ... Full Story

Students in Caerphilly learned a lot about the environment and particularly about reducing, reusing and recycling during this year’s Compost Awareness Week. From May 4th to May 10th, Caerphilly council’s minimisation team toured the neighbourhood schools, teaching students about the importance of reducing the amount of waste sent to the landfill through composting. The Bedwas Juniors participated in Compost Awareness Week by running a competition to design their compost bin. Composting activities around the area were photographed in order to compete for the prize of Caerphilly’s Compost Champion. The prize was awarded to Ynysddu Primary School for their enthusiastic environmental activities. Waste & Resources ... Full Story

A survey conducted by the Waste and Resource Action Programme has revealed that the increasing fertiliser prices would lead to the demand for compost going up. Last year soil improver and fertiliser prices increased by over fifty per cent and they have now reached record levels. Partly the increase is attributed to a price rise of natural gas which is a component of ammonia fertilisers. But with the high prices for fertilisers farmers were now turning to compost and this was likely to lead to higher prices for it. The Waste and Resource Action Programme has approximated that compost fetches a ... Full Story

IChemE recently conducted a household survey and discovered that as much as £610 worth of food is thrown away every year by the average family in the UK. As a result of these figures, the group has released a new guide to help families reduce the amount of household waste they generate. According to IChemE’s Director of Policy, Andrew Furlong, the recently published ten-step guide covers all aspects of waste management and does no solely focus on food waste reduction. "People must rethink the way they approach waste if we're to avoid being lost to landfill The UK sends more rubbish to ... Full Story