Britain's national innovation agency has called on property owners and large commercial tenants to begin applying for funding that will help improve energy efficiency and reduce their offices' carbon footprints. TSB, the Technology Strategy Board that provides millions of pounds' worth of grants that support innovative British companies every year, has been looking to shift funding away from the country's technology innovators and to the supply chain instead. Ian Meikle, who heads the TSB'S ongoing Low Impact Buildings scheme, told of how major developers, contractors, and owners of large property or large tenants will be targetted. This time round, the TSB wants ... Full Story

Local companies looking to bid for long-term waste contracts have claimed that they could save ratepayers in Northern Ireland at least £20m per year. The 25-year-long contracts have been set up to guarantee that NI's councils meet EU targets that were set on recycling while avoiding huge fines. A dozen waste companies not involved in the process have made claims that they would be happy to do exactly the same work but at a cheaper rate -saving councils a whopping £500m by the time the full terms of the contract are through, they said. The Stormont committee will question those involved on ... Full Story

A warning was this week issued on the dangers of illegal tyre dumping, at the same time officials start to clear at least 7,000 of them that were left on farmland. Over 20,000 were stored on land located in Towyn close to Abergele, Conwy, by a male claiming that he intended to personally recycle them. The man fled abroad and the owner of the land, Maria Burt, was left to foot the bill for their removal as part of a saga she described as being a nightmare experience. In a statement made by one of its staff, Dylan Williams, the Environment Agency ... Full Story

The UK might be further behind matching the European End-of-Life recycling targets than was previously thought, after the Coalition revised ELV recovery guidelines relative to residual fuels last month. Last month the BIS, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, took steps to remove weight allowances that it had originally set as part of its ELV recovery guidelines. These allowed one per cent of the weight of ELVs to be automatically classed, as this was believed to be the total weight of left over residual fuels in an average vehicle that would usually be collected for reprocessing or use. Last month the ... Full Story

A new £1m recycling centre has officially opened in Norfolk. The centre, located in Dereham, will deal with 6,000 tonnes’ worth of household rubbish ever year while recycling over 70 per cent of it, according to Norfolk County Council. The opening of the facility increases Norfolk's network of functioning recycling centres to 20, which makes it among England’s most extensive. County councillor Bill Borrett, who is responsible for Norfolk County Council’s environment and waste department, said that the site aims to boost recycling while diverting waste from landfill. Mr Borrett continued by adding that the site comes as a vital part of his ... Full Story

Scotland's largest council is one of the poorest performers in terms of recycling household waste, as pointed out by recently published statistics. Glasgow was responsible for producing over 66,000 tonnes of waste across this year’s second quarter yet only recycled around 26.8 per cent. The rest was sent to landfill. Figures released by Sepa, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency , display a worrying national recycling rate of just over 43.5%. In the capital city of Edinburgh, over 35 per cent of household waste was either recycled or composted. Sepa’s latest set of figures coincide with new and improved methods of presenting household ... Full Story

A rugby league club in West Yorkshire will recycle two stands from a disused and derelict football ground at least 75 miles away from its base. Featherstone Rovers RLFC is going to move the stands from Scarborough’s  McCain Stadium, four years after a football match was last seen at the ground. The rugby league outfit will complete demolition of the remaining parts of stadium, as part of an exclusive deal. Simon Riley, Featherstone’s chief executive, said that it is as though the stands the rugby team will take have been specially designed to fit its own stadium. Last Thursday, the planning committee ... Full Story

A recycling company is set to challenge a decision made by Banbridge District Council with regards to not renewing its contract and bringing recycling services in-house. The company, namely Bryson Recycling, is arguing that the council's decision is flawed and is against the best interests that residents in Banbridge have. The firm has provided recycling services across Banbridge for 10 years and its current contract will expire in March 2012. Thus far, Banbridge District Council has flat-out denied the allegations. Upon being informed of the council's most recent decision, which was made in February, Bryson Recycling officially commissioned a review made by ... Full Story

Scottish councils are to give their recycling schemes a major overhaul by using a ‘carbon metric’ system. Rather than prioritising recyclables by weight, the process will focus on those that cause the most damage to the environment, such as plastics, textiles and food waste. From 2013 onwards, councils will be asking residents to concentrate on recycling waste with a ‘high carbon impact’, with other low carbon impact materials, such as paper, taking a back seat. The initiative is thought to be a world’s first, replacing the traditional schemes which focus on weight and are currently used across Europe. In a tricky job ... Full Story

 The Environment Agency has discovered a multi-million pound network of scams that are seeing thousands of tons of UK recycling being dumped in the Third World. The three-year investigation has discovered that around 30 criminal gangs are shipping waste out of the country to Kenya and Nairobi.   The news comes just a week after it was revealed that councils across Britain are forcing households into separating their rubbish into as ... Full Story

A start-up Scottish recycling company has sold its unique method of reusing old tyres without having any impact on the environment to a Spanish firm. The Recyclatech Group, which has found to way to treat rubber with bacteria so it can be fully recycled, was first set up by researchers from Napier University in Edinburgh in 2006. The firm is now aiming to build a plant in Scotland which could produce 1,000 tonnes of recycled rubber a year and sell it to interested companies. A franchise agreement has now been signed between Recyclatech and Spanish group Biotyre. With an aim to eventually ... Full Story

Coca-Cola is continuing to expand its UK public recycling programme by targeting students at universities. The University of Exeter was this week added to the list of participants in the Coca-Cola Enterprise (CCE) Recycle Zone.   Starting in 2008, the drinks company now has more than 90 recycling stations in the UK, at prime locations such as the London Eye, Leoland, airports and hospitals. The aim of the project is to make recycling on the ... Full Story