A new scheme in Sherbone could see 730 tonnes of food waste collected each year. Residents in the area will be the first group in a series in West Dorset to participate in a food waste collection scheme. Once a week under the new scheme, food waste will be collected from households in the Sherbone area by the West Dorset District Council. All food waste will be accepted for recycling, including bread, egg shells, meat, yoghurts, fish and cakes. The kerbside collections are scheduled to begin 26 April and will include 9,000 households to start with. Brown kerbside bins will be ... Full Story

This year's Green Retailer of the Year award was given to Tesco at the end of March by the Drinks Business Green Awards. The awards, held annually, are given out to businesses that have made an outstanding effort in eco-friendly retail habits. In recent years, the international supermarket chain has implemented several schemes designed to promote sustainable business practices. Many of these methods have surrounded alcoholic beverages and the company's commitment to making them more environmentally friendly. The company has been instrumental in the development of a 75 per cent paperboard-based product called Tetra-pak. The packing material is easily recycled. Tesco's wide ... Full Story

In the wake of the Norwich City Council's dispute settlement with Morrison, the parent company of Citycare, new plans to curb waste from food scraps will be implemented into households across the county. The ambitious new plans aim to keep food scraps out of landfills by collecting them separately from the rubbish bins. Norwich City Council entered into a heated dispute with Morrison, after the city decided to contract out waste collection to another waste management firm, Connaught. However, last week the differences were settled and Connaught can now take-over the new contract. Once aspect of the new waste management contract will ... Full Story

According to a study presented last March 28 at a meeting held in Edinburgh for the Society for General Microbiology, microbes may be the best solution in breaking down plastics. Most people often consider plastics as disposables, but in fact, a plastic takes several thousands of years to decompose in nature. Thus, plastics represent the fastest growing contribution of mankind to water pollution, and are now becoming a serious problem. Latest statistics from studies show that plastic is the most common garbage found in seas and its quantity is fast increasing. The high concentration of plastics in the water surface is dangerous ... Full Story

More than 300 tonnes of surplus food, comparable to 800,000 meals, will no longer be dumped in landfill sites each year. Instead, the food will be handed out to homeless and other at risk people – thanks to the £362,000 grant given by the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) to the non-profit organisation FareShare. The charity provides collection service for restaurants, hotels and other stores to give out foodstuff that are no longer saleable but are still fit for consumption.  The LWARB provides 90 per cent of the required financial support to set up a food distribution depot at the ... Full Story

The Government has proposed a new ban which would see food waste kept out of landfills entirely. The food waste ban proposal comes in the wake of EU waste targets becoming more rigorous and the Government's needs to clamp down on waste ending up in landfills. Hilary Benn, the environmental waste secretary, said that it is no longer sensible to send leftover food to rot in landfills when it is proven that measures such as composting are effective means of dealing with food waste. A new consultation is expected to be launched to gauge the feasibility of banning food waste from landfills ... Full Story

West Norwood and Streatham residents are being encouraged by the thousands to begin recycling their food waste in a new green scheme which will be extended to these areas shortly. New kitchen equipment designed to make separating food waste easier is being handed out to households in the area. The idea is to provide up to 1,500 households around the Streatham area with the new equipment to make separating food waste from other household waste easier and thus encourage more households to separate waste. Another 1,500 households in West Norwood will also receive the equipment. The equipment, which includes a kitchen caddy, ... Full Story

At the Northwest Ethnic Minority Business Awards this year, A mini eco system which aims to recycle food waste and decrease waste sent to landfill was the recipient of the Young Entrepreneur of the Year title. Designed by Kenneth Cheung from Liverpool, the system creates compost which allows seeds to be ready for planting in just 14 days. Cheung's design, the BEECylce, quickly caught the attention of the awards' judges with its ingenuity and speed of which composting was ready and available for use in the garden. The younger entrepreneur's design allows compost from food waste to be created efficiently, easily, ... Full Story

Green Cone Ltd in conjunction with Nottingham City Council have joined together to reduce the cost of buying at-home composters, water butts, wormeries, and food digesters in order for households to effectively manage their own waste. City residents will now have the opportunity to purchase these products at discounted prices for all their composting and garden needs. Green Cone Ltd. offers a wide range in selection for eco-friendly solutions to food waste management, which include composting, food digestion, and wormeries. These home treatment methods for food waste could greatly impact the amount of food waste Nottingham residents are sending to landfill. Currently ... Full Story

ACS International Schools Cobham, Hillingdon, and Egham increased their recycling efforts by 21% with the help of Tidy Planet's Food Waste Solutions programme. The schools launched "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle" campaigns at each campus back in 2007 after it was revealed that 85% of the waste being generated by these institutions was being sent to landfills. Now, just three years later all of these campuses have reduced their non-recyclable waste down to 59%, and hope to further achieve a target goal of 80% of all waste being recycled by 2012. However, in order to reach that goal, ACS Cobham decided to ... Full Story

Recycling rates are continuing to be on the rise in Scotland, prompting the government to once again increase recycling target rates. Currently, the country is comfortably meeting their target recycling rate of 30%. A recent report released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency indicates that currently recycling and composting rates are now at 35.9%. The government had set this target between October 2008 and September 2009, and reached their goal, even surpassing it by a little more than five percent. However, in order to keep improving upon recycling habits within Scotland, the country will now aim to have a 40% recycling ... Full Story

Now that the New Year is here many people are looking around their homes and seeing the aftermath of another holiday.  What were once festive decorations now just seem like glittery rubbish as people fill garbage cans and rubbish bins with the waste of another holiday.  For most people this means bags full of rubbish sitting on their kerbside along with their tree which has been cast into the ditch in a manner unfitting to something that once brought so much joy.  One council in the United Kingdom is looking for ways to get its residents to break holiday tradition ... Full Story