Over the weekend residents of Newcastle were shocked to find that a good number of the bottle banks in the town were full to capacity. This led to glass bottles piling up or being left lying around the bottle banks. A disturbed resident wondered why the Inter-Church recycling initiative had been let to die only for the residents to now have to bear with lack of collection services. An inter-church community project used to operate a door to door glass collection and recycling scheme for Newcastle households, but it was forced to fold up earlier in the year because of financial ... Full Story

An environmental policy proposed by the Liberal Democrats intends to reduce the amounts of waste sent to landfills in Sheffield. Councillor Paul Scriven who is the group leader revealed that if the party wins majority seats in Sheffield Council in May they will initiate a second kerbside recycling collection. Ten per cent of Sheffield’s waste presently comprises of glass, of which only a fifth undergoes recycling. Since glass does not burn when incinerated it ends up being sent to landfill sites. The glass now comprises a significant proportion of the fifteen per cent of waste that is dumped in landfills. The Liberal ... Full Story

A glass recycling scheme targeted at business enterprises in Harborough district could see the light of day before summer. Harborough District Council intends to begin the collection service by the end of Spring and is encouraging business enterprises to register their interest in the glass recycling scheme. Close to a hundred letters have been mailed to enterprises such as bars and clubs in the district informing them about the glass recycling scheme. Though the scheme is intended to increase the commercial recycling rates, Harborough District Council is disappointed with the lukewarm response the plan has elicited so far. The scheme has seen business ... Full Story

Glass may be the next target for the Bentonville recycling program. "We will find some way to address that. It's a work in progress," said Mayor Bob McCaslin. City officials are putting together ideas for a new program, which will be separate from the new recycling program by Allied Waste Services. The waste disposal company can’t glass because it is unsafe at the moment and because its trucks are not designed to handle glass, stated Jennifer Fagan, a sales manager for Allied Waste. Recyclable products they can accept are include paper, plastic and aluminum. "All of this stuff gets handled eventually at the recycling facility. ... Full Story

Alternative Waste Solutions (AWS) has begun on a £14m (€19m) expansion of a bottle recycling plant creating the world’s largest facility for mixed plastic bottles. It will be located in Helmswell, Lincolnshire, and can handle up to 100,000 tonnes of mixed plastic bottles annually. The plant will handle food grade plastics including PET and HDPE. It will not be fully functional until later this year, and it is expected to be at full capacity before the end of 2009. AWS received £2m (€2.7m) from various sources to start the project: £1.5m (€2m) from the Sustainable Technology Fund managed by E-Synergy; ... Full Story