News round

Biffa Waste Services has been accredited for exemplary driving standards by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.

It operates a fleet of 1300 commercial vehicles. To gain accreditation, Biffa said it had gone through a stringent process of pre-validation checks and audits.

Group fleet compliance manager Mark Forster said: "Earned recognition is an extremely high standard for compliant operators to achieve and is recognised by the Traffic Commissioners and enforcement bodies alike.

He said Biffa had run a number of vehicle safety campaigns in particular concerned with adding driving on pavements.

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Coca-Cola European Partners has invested an undisclosed sum in multi-beverage dispensing company Lavit.

It said this would help it solutions towards eliminating packaging waste and reducing its carbon footprint, while providing consumers with Coca-Cola beverages.

Coca-Cola's funding will be used to help Lavit test and develop new products

Graham Stokhuyzen, vice president of new business development at CCEP said: "Decreasing our packaging use and waste is a core part of our strategy to reduce our carbon footprint.

"We will continue to develop and invest in ‘drinks on demand’ dispensed delivery innovations to offer consumers choice, personalisation and convenience in the most sustainable ways possible.

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Suez Recycling and Recovery UK has secured an extension to its household waste and recycling collection and processing contract with Warwick District Council, which it has held since 2008.

It will continue this work while the council moves to a joint waste collection contract with Stratford-upon-Avon District Council, expected to start in summer 2022.

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Pyrolysis and recycling engineer Rory Hughes has won a UK Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hughes is technical director at IRR Waste 2 Energy, part of the Carlton Forest Group.

He gained the award at the UK Business Tech Awards. Hughes’ work has taken him across the globe including the USA, Germany, South Africa and South America, on pyrolysis projects for tyres and rubber compounds. At IRR Waste 2 Energy he has worked on the development of a modular, scalable technology for hard-to-recycle waste.

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Waste firm Reconomy is to continue its support for accommodation for young care leavers in Wolverhampton.

The Wolverhampton House Project is a partnership between the city council, The National House Project and Reconomy under hick the latter will fund five apprenticeship placements in 2021 for the project's care leavers.

Reconomy has also provided all Wolverhampton's 130 care leavers with a Christmas gift of a plastic-free bathroom set.

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Steve Palfrey has been appointed chair of the waste board for local government body the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT).

He is assistant director for waste and environment at Suffolk County Council, and will succeed Ian Fielding in January.

Palfrey is a former chair of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers and has spent five years on the national executive of the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee.

He has worked in local government for 25 years, mostly in waste management, at Essex, Dorset and Somerset county councils before joining Suffolk in 2010.

"I’m looking forward to my new role as chair of ADEPT's waste group at this critical time when the expectations on local authorities, the waste services we provide to residents and the funding we receive are all about to fundamentally change in support of the circular economy," he said.

Fielding has been chair since 2016 but is retiring from North Yorkshire County Council. He led ADEPT's work earlier this year on its weekly survey of local authority waste services responses to the pandemic.

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A survey by circular economy platform Reloop has found that deposit return systems are increasingly being chosen by governments to tackle wasted plastic, glass and aluminium.

It said its Overview of Deposit Systems for One-Way Beverage Containers showed that by the end of this year some 291m people would have access to a deposit return system, increasing by 207m by the end of 2023.

Reloop said European countries with DRS have an average beverage container return rate of 91%.

Models where consumers return containers to retailers were more successful than those using redemption centres or depots.

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The Environment Agency is to review a series of waste quality protocols, which govern when certain wastes can become non-waste once fully recovered. Some have reviews competed and groups will in these cases be set up to take revised versions forward.

Materials covered are: anaerobic digestate, compost, poultry litter ash, processed fuel oil, pulverised fuel ash and furnace bottom ash, tyre-derived rubber materials, biodiesel, biomethane, recycled gypsum from waste plasterboard, non-packaging plastics, aggregate from steel slag and flat glass.

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FCC Environment is rehoming colonies of water voles as part of restoration work at the Greengairs Landfill site in North Lanarkshire.

Water voles are among the most threatened UK species. At Greengairs, FCC Environment will relocate the animals from the landfill to a fully engineered, bespoke habitat.

This includes more than 425 metres of water banks, allowing the voles sufficient soft ground for burrowing, shelter and to raise their young. Open water channels give the voles quick and stealthy access to food resources throughout the area.

FCC Environment's restoration and ecology manager Paul Brightwell said: "Once the vegetation within the habitat is well established, we will begin to introduce the voles to their new home.

"We have 25 males and seven females to be relocated in the first phase, providing them with a safe, suitable habitat, with the aim of boosting their numbers and biodiversity in the area."

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Used car retailer CarShop has appointed Enva to provide waste management services for its new store in Nottingham.

The 80,000 square feet building displays more than 200 cars and a further 500 vehicles outside.

Enva will manage all waste produced and provide an audit trail for services including general waste, scrap metal, hazardous waste and interceptor cleaning.

National sales director Trevor Lawlor said: "We look forward to continuing our relationship with CarShop and ensuring that their recycling and environmental performance reflects the quality and ambition of their business."

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Environment minister Rebecca Pow has taken a virtual tour of Beauparc's new £30m MRF at Barkston, Lincolnshire, which is due to become fully operational in April 2021, and of a newly equipped facility in Leicestershire which process waste from February 2021.

Company staff discussed issues with Pow including how packaging recovery note values affect the industry, and how greater co-ordination can be achieved between packaging producers, retailers and waste management businesses.

Beauparc chief executive Brian McCabe said: "It is important that we work together with Government to achieve its waste recycling targets. We need to understand the pressures that our politicians are under and they need to hear from the industry about what is practical and achievable."

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Councils in Surrey have launched a campaign to deter residents from abusing refuse collection workers.

Surrey Environment Partnership, which represents the 11 councils, said collection crews faces verbal abuse and were sometimes put in danger by the public.

This most often happened when residents wanted crews them to collect waste that could cause a hazard or had been put into the wrong bins.

Nicola Blake, account director at Amey, which handles waste and recycling in four areas of Surrey, said: "Some residents can often misunderstand the role of a waste collection operative and on some occasions take out their frustrations on them. We ask that residents do their best to understand their roles and to get in contact with us if they have any concerns."

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Waste firm TradeWaste.co.uk is supporting a campaign to ban the disposable face masks widely used since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

It said the UK would consume 19.2bn non-recyclable face masks next year, most of which would be sent to landfill, and some would end up in watercourses.

The company has given its backing to a parliamentary petition.

Company spokeswomen Charlotte Green said: "It's really important to consider the wider impact of single-use face masks as they can't easily be recycled and end up in landfill, in rivers and the sea – that's why we are supporting a new petition on the Government to ban their sale to the general public."

She said a washable and reusable face mask was cheaper at £1.40 or a pack of five for £6.99.

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MPs are to grill Dame Glenys Stacey on her nomination by the government as chair of the new Office for Environmental Protection. This will take over environmental regulation work at present administered by the European Commission.

She will appear before members of the environmental audit and Defra committees on 15 December.

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Tree protection provider Tubex has launched a recycling programme for its tree shelters.

Buyers can ask to join the programme and get bulk sacks for storing the shelters once removed, ready for collected and transport to one of Tubex's parent firm Berry Group's recycling facilities.

Tree shelters can be recycled into polypropylene pellets from which new shelters can be made.

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Seven regulatory concessions have been issued by the Environment Agency, all of which mean that those who comply with basic requirements will not normally face any enforcement action. They cover aspects of carpets, window frames and bed bases.

The absence of enforcement depends on the activity meeting the description set out by the EA, conditions being met and that it does not, and is not likely to, cause environmental pollution or harm human health.

These are for Treating waste carpet and carpet tiles for recovery, Storing and recovering cropper dust and carpet shearings from carpet manufacture, Storing waste carpet from the manufacturing sector, Storing waste uPVC window frames, Using shredded waste carpet in equestrian surfaces, Storing and treating waste divan bed bases, Manual treatment of waste windows and doors.

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The Environment Agency has appealed for information after two builders’ bags full of asbestos sheets were near the village of Sowton, east Devon.

EA officer Dave Brogden said: "The burden of investigating and clearing waste from fly-tipping often falls on local councils and we get involved if the amount and type of waste is so bad it can only be classified as illegal dumping.

On this occasion we have stepped in to sort out this problem, the result of someone showing a complete disregard to the safety of the public and the environment Those with information are asked to call the EA hotline 0800 807060 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

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Construction of Sunderland's £4m household waste and recycling centre is underway on the former Rolls Royce site at Pallion. It will replace the Beach Street facility and is due to open in autumn 2021.

Council leader Graeme Miller, said: "This is all about us listening to our residents. They told us that they wanted to see better household waste and recycling facilities and that's something we have taken on board with our plans for this fantastic new centre."

The current site has had around 40,000 visits annually and collects around 17,000 tonnes of materials.

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Suez Recycling and Recovery UK and Somerset Waste Partnership say they have collected an extra 302 tonnes of recyclable materials following the launch of the Recycle More service in Mendip district. This is equivalent to an 11% increase.

The service extends recycling to cover plastic tubs, pots and trays, cartons, batteries and small WEEE.

There was an extra 41 tonnes of plastic collected, up by 23% and 6.4 tonnes of WEEE, which had not previously been collected.

Recycle More will be extended to the rest of Somerset over the next 18 months.

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Plastic roads surfacing manufacturer MacRebur is to expand into the American market with a factory in Florida

It adds residual waste to asphalt for road construction and surfacing to extend and enhance the bitumen binder.

Chief executive Toby McCartney said: "Plastic packaging is a huge problem in the US, and a main contributor to the 80 million tonnes worth of waste being produced every year.

"This troubling statistic presents us with an obvious opportunity to offer a green alternative to a growing problem."

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Bryson Recycling has provided funding for Conwy Food Bank through its Recycling Rewards campaign.

For every tonne of garden waste collected under its contract with Conwy County Borough Council Bryson donates £1 to a local charity and ha sos far sent the food bank £6,100.

The company's general manager Gareth Walsh said; "Our Recycling Rewards campaign is a unique approach to encourage recycling and let us give something back to the local community where we deliver our services."

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The Veolia Environmental Trust has awarded £600,000 to the Woodland Trust towards building the Northern Forest.

This is planned to have 50m trees planted by 2050 stretching from Hull to Southport.

Kevin Hurst, chief commercial officer for Veolia UK said: "We are very proud to encourage more growth in the country and to be working on such an exciting and historic mission to reforest the UK."

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Re-Gen Waste is working with the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management in its Re-Gen Academy, which is intended to provide learning and development opportunities for people working in local authorities.

Hundreds of bursaries will be provided to access CIWM training and development services.

Jay Moosaye, Re-Gen's head of commercial development, said: "We fully understand the impact that austerity has had on waste services, in particular on training budgets, and the economic consequences of Covid-19 will add to this pressure on resources.

"We have been consulting with local authorities to understand what learning and development opportunities are most valued and the Re-Gen Academy has been designed to meet those needs - particularly to meet training needs that may not be prioritised where money is tight."

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Bakery equipment supplier Bakers Basco has warned supermarkets they could be unintentionally damaging the environment by failing to prevent returnable and reusable transit packaging from going misisng.

Bakers Basco said its equipment was designed to be reused for up to 10 years but sometimes mistakenly ended up at recycling operations to be chipped, due to the "perception that it has no value".

General manager Paul Empson said: "This is a common problem across many areas of the food supply chain and we need to drive awareness about this equipment.

"Yes, it's got value. yes, it's designed to be environmentally-friendly and yes, it has an owner."

Press release

Derbyshire County Council has signed a two-year contract with OpenSky Data Systems to support the processing of waste movements in its area.

Software will capture and submit contract tonnage data and manage authorised vehicle tipping lists

OpenSky commercial and technology director William Flanagan said the contract addressed "the gaps in waste data management for waste disposal authorities and waste partnerships".

Press release

Material Focus has launched a retailer communications toolkit in preparation for in-store take-back of electricals for recycling

From 1 January all retailers that sell more than £100,000 of electricals a year will be expected to accept old electricals on a like-for-like basis, and brands with multi-site stores selling different products may need to communicate separately with each.

Online only and smaller electrical and electronic retailers will join this regime in January 2022.

The toolkit includes an in-store poster, point-of-sale reminders and key points for staff training among its services.

Details: [email protected]

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Mitie has completed its acquisition of Interserve Facilities Management, creating a business with five divisions incising Specialist Services, which will cover Mitie's waste operations.

Completion of the deal means Mitie now has 77,500 employees. Chief executive Phil Bentley said: "I recognise that there is much to do as we bring our two companies together, but I believe that we have an opportunity to shape the future of facilities management."

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London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) has secured £900,000 of funding from mayor Sadiq Khan's Green New Deal to help small and medium sized businesses engaged in low-carbon circular economy projects.

Grants will be offered and experts from the board will provide free advice. There will also be a free ’match-making’ platform for green businesses.

Chief executive Wayne Hubbard said: "This is exciting news as the funding will help London's thriving low carbon circular sector to keep innovating."

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University of Birmingham economics student Harriet Noy has designed a smartphone app to help fellow students reduce their carbon footprint in their shopping.

Online marketplace Hazaar enables students to buy and trade items from clothing and textbooks to costumes and household items.

Noy's app is designed to support Hazaar's rapid expansion. It launches in January 2021 and updates will be shared across Hazaar's social media channels.

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