The waste industry’s bodies have hit back to claims made in the UK’s Sunday newspapers that the garbage collection services will be reduced to just once monthly. News articles in the Daily Express and Sunday Telegraph expressed that a single monthly garbage collection was “inevitable” and could start in the next three years. The articles quoted P. Ward, the Resources Action Programme’s managing director, as stating that: “Monthly collections already take place in Germany and I’m convinced that in some of Britain’s areas we will see this happen as well.” However WRAP explained that the Sunday Telegraph’s stories are “neither WRAP’s nor P. ... Full Story

The ecoparc, scheduled to open soon at Derwenthaugh, will be the world’s largest steam autoclave recycling plant, capable of processing 420,000 tonnes of municipal and commercial waste annually. Developed by Graphite Resources, the project has cost nearly £50 million and will use cutting edge technology as the first of a new breed of merchant waste facilities. It will be able to reduce the volume of waste by 80 per cent, before it becomes recycled or re-processed. William Thompson, director of Graphite Resources, said, “Environmentally-friendly and cost-effective alternatives to landfill and incineration are urgently needed. “This facility, which we believe will be the first ... Full Story

The Chief executive of a major UK waste management company has hit back at the Campaign for Real Recycling (CRR) for criticising the practise of co-mingled collections. Ian Wakelin of Greenstar UK, insists that co-mingled ( or mixed) collections could increase recycling levels by 15 per cent. “I don’t agree with the CRR’s argument that co-mingled collections undermine the environmental and financial benefits of recycling.” he commented, describing their criticism as ‘very frustrating’. “The negativity of co-mingled press driven by proponents of kerbside collections is very frustrating. We need to make recycling as simple as possible and the best way to do this ... Full Story

The largest power station in the UK, Drax, recently signed an agreement with Alstom Power, a French company, to build a biomass fuel processing plant. The £50 million plant could replace as much as 10 per cent of the plant’s coal with biomass materials such as nut shells, sunflower husks, grasses and woodchips. The agreement signifies the intention to build the largest biomass plant on the planet which would be capable of burning 1.5 million tones of organic material annually. The aim of the project is to decrease the amount of carbon emissions emitted by the power station in North Yorkshire ... Full Story

A company in South Yorkshire recently launched a new recycling service for businesses, claiming to be able to efficiently recycle almost all of the waste it collects, including electronics and electrical items, for free. Barnsley-based SR Recycling has been in the business for over 35 years and aims to recycle 99 per cent of the waste it collects. The company was inspired by Japanese recycling techniques which use disassembly lines in order to separate waste. In the UK, a process called granulation occurs which makes it difficult and expensive to recover waste. According to SR Recycling, many of the chemical and metals used ... Full Story

A site close to Kings Lynn has been provided by Norfolk County Council for the location of a waste treatment plant. Norfolk County Council also intends to present a Outline Business Case by the end of the month to the government in order to obtain 72.4 million pounds which is what is needed to meet fifty per cent of the budget for the planned waste facility. The project, which is referred to as Contract B, is planned to have an annual processing capacity of close to two hundred thousand tonnes of residual household waste. It is expected to be operating by the ... Full Story

Recycling has become increasingly popular in recent years with intrepid individuals finding ways to reuse almost everything but the city of Los Angeles wins first prize for their environmental zeal with their a new proposal to recycle the city’s sewage. The proposal was generated by a growing need for fresh water supplies and a dwindling supply. The city has been affected by a persistent drought which has left it with less drinking water than it needs. Nor is Los Angeles alone. Many other cities in America are facing a similar situation and wondering what to do about water. Ten years ago, Mayor, ... Full Story

Those who are highly enthusiastic about recycling are urging consumers to recycle more. In fact, in some areas of the country residents are already being fined for not recycling enough. Higher levels of recycling are encouraging, however they also indicate high levels of consumption. If people precycled, that is, if they reduced their purchases to only essential and useful items, they would generate less waste and need to recycle far less. Precycling is a new concept centred around the idea of preventing waste build up by reducing spending and making smart consumer choices. The concept is important because even recycling contributes to ... Full Story

The planned budget cut for DEFRA’s funding to the Waste and Resources Action Programme has been criticised by the Liberal Democrats who have cautioned that it will impede endeavours to promote composting. The Environment Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Martin Horwood called the Government’s plan to reduce Waste and Resources Action Programme’s budget by twenty five per cent outrageous, arguing that it needs to assist households and business organisations in composting of food waste. Martin Horwood further wondered how citizens were expected to deal with food waste when the Government was reducing the budget to the body charged with the responsibility ... Full Story

The residents of Londonderry have been given more time by Derry City Council before they have to begin paying fines for misuse of their recycling bins. Residents face fines of up to one hundred pounds if they are caught misusing their blue recycling bins. Before they start fining householders, a Derry City Council spokesperson said they would first conduct more research before they put the law which has already come into force, into practise. The spokesperson revealed that Derry City Council had welcomed the new waste laws since they would help boost the Council’s endeavours to raise the rates of recycling in ... Full Story

Clippings from the garden could be the next kind of waste to undergo recycling in Great Yarmouth as the council targets to increase the rate of recycling by twice the current rate by the year 2020 and to avert rising landfill taxes. Council officers are considering a scheme where the residents could put their vegetable peelings and green rubbish into a new bin that would be collected on Saturdays every once in two weeks. The council's portfolio holder for the environment, Jim Shrimplin said the advantages of such an initiative were under examination but emphasised that it was a plan that would ... Full Story

An Energy from Waste plant with a capacity to process sixty two thousand tonnes of residual waste annually using combined heat and power technology is to be built in Telford. The United Kingdom chapter of SITA intends to erect the new plant in collaboration with Cyclerval UK which is a provider of technology. The plant will be situated adjacent to the Granville landfill centre which is presently run by SITA UK on behalf of Telford and Wrekin Council. A spokesperson for the UK chapter of SITA disclosed that the facility would be involved in the processing of all the waste collected by ... Full Story