Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been identified by experts as a growing issue for countries to begin dealing with more aggressively. The UN, recently released a report warning developing countries to begin recycling their e-waste or it could have an unsavory impact on the environment down the line. In response to this growing need, A UK based waste management company, EnvironCom has opened up their largest WEEE facility to date. Located in Grantham, the facility consists of four separate plants which can process and recycle up to 100,000 tonnes per year of  WEEE waste. That is approximately 10% of ... Full Story

Last year, UK paper mills produced roughly 4.3m tonnes of board and paper. Although these numbers indicated a 14% drop from figures in 2008, the trend over the last five years has shown that paper production across the UK has been dropping steadily. In all the paper packaging industry has dropped in production by 31% since 2004. However, industry officials are arguing that the industry was struggling before the recession hit, and in some cases, according to Andrew Barneston, corrugated sector manager for Confederation of Paper Industries, this made the industry more prepared to handle the economic downturn. It seems that now ... Full Story

A new recycling facility in St Helens, UK just opened up and will be handling a wide range of electrical based recycling for UK based recycling and waste management firm, Viridor. The new recycling centre will taking end-of-life electrical equipment from all over the country. The materials sent for processing at the new site will include e-waste collected from schools, hospitals, households, and businesses across the Northwest section of the UK. The new facility can process up to 40,000 metric tonnes when operating at full capacity. The electrical components are separated at the centre for materials which can be reused such as ... Full Story

Plans for a new recycling centre scheduled to be built in Sunrise were denied by City Commissioners on Tuesday after upwards of 400 residents packed into City Hall to protest the recycling plant. Dozens of critics and local residents launched complaints with the city council after plans for a new recycling facility were put forth for the new Green Now project. Protestors of the plant included mayors from nearby Tamarac and Lauderhill, as well as parents from a nearby mosque school who believe the fumes from the plant could be toxic and emit cancer causing chemicals on the playground and into ... Full Story

SCA Recycling has officially opened a new materials recycling facility in Southampton. The £15 million plant is SCA’s first foray into recycling a variety of materials. The company originally specialized in paper. The new facility was opened by Roger Black the former Olympic silver medalist runner who said that the plant would offer better recycling opportunities to the south of England. He went on to say that as well as setting new standards in recycling SCA would provide much needed jobs where they were needed. The new plant has incorporated infra-red sorting technology which can tell the difference between many different materials ... Full Story

The recycling and waste management industry has many obstacles to overcome.  Educating the public, dealing with constantly changing laws and a reduction in the price of natural resources have all led the recycling and waste management business to be one of the more difficult types to operate successfully.  Now a recycling center in Caythorpe is discovering a new obstacle that they much overcome, which is controlling the smell that emits from their plant.  The company was fined recently after numerous complaints by residents that the smell was too much to handle. The Mid UK Recycling Center currently handles all of the ... Full Story

It was announced today that a waste management company in the United Kingdom will be awarded a large contract from the United States' army over the next three years.  The Farnborough, England based company has been awarded a contract for its containerized waste disposal system by the United States' army which will last over the next three years.   The UK company says that the contract is worth around one and a half million pounds.  This contract adds to many that the company has in the defense industry, specifically with the armies of the United States and UK. QinetiQ has created a ... Full Story

One of the newest trends in mobile phones and online social networking sites is to use various applications to give people information, allow them to play games, make surveys, and download music directly to the phone.  As smartphones like the iPhone become more and more popular, customers are increasingly relying on their mobile for valuable information which is always at their fingertips.  So everything from leading a simulated mafia gang war, to posting directly to Twitter and Facebook can all be done from a mobile phone. To take advantage of this trend T-mobile has offered an application to its customers which ... Full Story

A state-of-the-art rail recycling plant planned for the Whitemoor Yard depot has received planning consent from Cambridgeshire's county council planning officers. After councillors voted unanimously to approve the 23 million pound plan, Network Rail is expected to soon begin working on the plant. The recycling centre at the Whitemoor Yard depot will bring 25 new jobs to the March area, and is expected to provide a boost to the county's construction industry. The centre will enable railway materials to be cleaned and processed for recycling and re-use. This will help Network Rail keep over 50,000 tonnes of waste railway material from ending ... Full Story

With three companies vying for Leicester county’s £86.6 million council waste contract effective from 2015 to 2040, the debate on what to do with the county’s rubbish has heated up. Waste firm Biffa, one of the bidding parties, wants to burn it. Biffa proposes building a CHP (combined heat and power) incinerator to be located in Shepshed. The incinerator will take the expected 180,000 tonnes of public rubbish, add it to the 120,000 tonnes of commercial waste and convert it, says Biffa, into enough electricity to run 42,000 homes. David Savory of Biffa asserts that this is a proven and safe technology, ... Full Story

The UK’s first disposable nappy recycling developer has announced reaching an agreement in Birmingham to turn the plastic recovered from the process into DIY products. Tyseley will be the site of the new £12 million Knowaste plant that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2010. Its link with SmallPlanet Building Products will mean that the plastic recovered from disposable nappy and incontinence product recycling will be made into plastic cladding, roof tiles and other building products – to be sold to DIY stores and directly to the construction industry. The plant, situated on the Atlas Industrial Estate, is currently under ... Full Story

Coca-Cola has indicated that it intends to recover all of its packaging materials by 2020, insisting that it remains committed to sustainability despite the recession. The company’s statement follows the publication of its 2008 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report, in which its intention to recycle 98 per cent of packaging waste at its European facilities was revealed. Coca-Cola has reduced its aluminium can weight by five per cent, in a move that could see  as much as 15,000 tonnes of aluminium saved each year. After successfully recovering nearly 125,000 tonnes of packaging waste in 2008, the company is over half-way to reaching ... Full Story