Latest news and information from MT Waste Management.
The landfill tax was created to incite councils to improve their waste management and recycling services and divert as much waste from landfills as possible. The principle behind it is plausible and logical but yearly raises and challenging targets to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill are costing councils millions of pounds each year.
During the London 2012 Olympic Games the capital will be flooded with millions of visitors and all these people will produce huge amounts of waste. Earlier this month the LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) revealed its plans to manage and recycle at least 70% of all the waste produced at Olympic venues.
A joint venture between Swiss industrial wireless network specialist Paradox Engineering and Rete di Imprese STEP - a group which comprises Italian firms Tecnotel, Sortron and PZ - have developed a system to monitor the input of waste into rubbish bins. Such control will allow an optimisation of collection routes and solve other urban waste collection issues.
Six months after the Waste Review 2011 was published the manufacturers’ organisation, EEF, reviewed it and concluded that the government should have been more ambitious with regards to the management of waste claiming that the UK’s waste legislation is outdated with regards to sustainable waste management and resource efficiency.
According to a new study from WRAP precious metals found on incorrectly disposed eWaste could top £7bn over next decade. The study analysed the potential reuse value of unwanted WEEE disposed of at Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) and via local authority bulky waste collections.
Europe and that includes de UK, is on the verge of another serious economic recession. Amongst many issues, reducing environmental burdens, creating new jobs and enhancing the resource base for the economy, are the ones that need special attention. That is when waste management and recycling comes into play offering a “win-win-win” opportunity to address these three issues.
After the second warmest November since records began in 1910 temperatures finally plummet across the country while the north and the midlands woke up carpeted in snow and frost. With the big freezer comes a series of issues that make our day to day a little more difficult specially for councils who have to make sure roads and streets are frost-free for commuters and waste management and collection can continue despite sever weather.
A well thought waste management & recycling plan must commence with the separation of individual waste streams also known as waste segregation. Inciting waste segregation saves time and money and that is exactly what Milton Keynes’s waste management and recycling plan wants to achieve with its pink sacks, green bins, blue boxes, yellow bags and black sacks.
According to the long waited WRAP survey about Britain’s organics waste and recycling sector the amount of food waste diverted from landfills has more than tripled in just nine months. Entitled ‘A study of the UK organics recycling industry 2009’, found that separate food waste collection by local authorities rose from 36,000 tonnes in 2008/09 to over 110,000 in April-December 2009.
The Coca Cola Enterprises has one of the most efficient waste management and recycling programs in the world. In the UK it has achieved a 99% recycling rate and now wants to help the London Organising Committee ensure London 2012 is a zero waste Olympic Games, with 70% all waste being recycled, reused or composted.
The expression “killing two rabbits with one shot” is probably one of the most popular sayings in the English language. Whilst “Anaerobic Digestion” is not an expression we use it on a daily basis, it could solve two of Britain’s biggest issues, waste to landfills diversion and energy security, killing two rabbits with one shot.
Despite a small growth of only 1.5 percent, one of the lowest of the past 10 years, England breaks through the 40% household waste recycling, reuse and composting barrier and it is now diverting 41,2% of household waste from landfills.
The UK’s waste management industry is likely to have a surplus of residual waste treatment facilities by 2020. But right now the annual capacity gap is of 22 million tonnes of untreated waste being sent to landfills, indicating there is “significant opportunity” for investment for many years to come.
For over a decade metal recyclers have been fighting to declassify metal as waste and now they are closer than ever to achieve their goal. In April and agreement was reached with the European Commission and yesterday (October 27) the Environment Agency published the regulatory guidance for scrap metal to cease to be waste.
On Monday (October 24) the trial of the largest WEEE export case has begun. In total seven defendants - four individuals and three companies - are being accused of illegally exporting 158 tonnes of electrical and electronic equipment from UK to Nigeria.
Last week (October 19th) the government launched a new voluntary commitment for local authorities to sign up and receive best practices information to improve waste management and recycling services of small and medium-sized business (SMEs). Entitled the “Local Authority Business Recycling and Waste Collection Commitment” it outlines 12 commitments that local authorities can use to tailor services to local businesses.
Despite having one of the most consumed products on the planet, if not the most, the Coca Cola Enterprises Ltd is an organisation that is looked up to by most companies for its unparalleled excellence in many areas of its production processes including its waste management programme. Today we take a closer at these programmes for its UK manufacturing sites.
Last week (October 12) Sainsbury’s unveiled an ambitious sustainability plan to send zero waste to landfill, reduce its packaging by half and its carbon emissions by 30 per cent in absolute of 2005 levels by 2020.
On Monday the European Parliament environment committee met in Brussels to discuss a recast of the EU WEEE Directive and voted for a new WEEE recycling target. It was voted almost unanimously that the new WEEE recycling target should be at 85%.
A recent research by non-governmental organisation Computer-Aid revealed that one in five companies are not 100% sure that their EEE disposal won’t end up in landfills and only 14% follow EEE disposal best practices.
In bid to ensure waste is managed as a resource in all EU countries by 2020 the Commission launched yesterday (September 20) a “Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe”. Despite a list of measures to increase recycling and economic incentives to stimulate demand for recyclables many green groups already labelled the roadmap as too vague.
The UK’s waste management industry is urging the government to provide more incentives in order to improve investor confidence, otherwise the country will fail to meet EU Landfill Diversion targets and waste disposal costs will rise to stratrospherical levels.
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills published a report where it estimated the value of the UK waste management sector. In other words, the contribution to the UK economy in 2010/11 according to the report shows the segment is worth £7.5 billion.
Waste management and recycling in Milton Keynes is taken very seriously by the Council, be it household waste or commercial and industrial waste. The council has three main Community Recycling Centres; their main focus is to facilitate the lives of those citizens who also take waste management and recycling very seriously.
The recycling point at the Kingston Shopping Centre is one of the busiest in Milton Keynes. Everyday residents bring their recyclable waste to the site but unfortunately there is a minority who abuse the recycling point by dumping rubbish on the premises. This has forced the Council and Kingston Shopping Centre Management to close the site overnight.
Every year letsrecycle.com conducts a survey to determine the councils with the highest levels of recycling and composting. With 70% of waste diverted from landfills South Oxfordshire is at the top of the table this year followed by Rochford (65.46%) and Surrey Heath Borough came in third with 64.73% of recycled and composted waste.
Zero Waste is the new trend amongst governments and companies throughout the world. Politics, CEOs and environmental experts are on the quest o find viable solutions towards a zero waste society and the concept of Waste-to-Energy (WtE) is emerging as one of the most promising solutions to this issue. But is it really best solution.
Electrical and electronics equipments are everywhere we look and we simply couldn’t live without them in this day and age. But what do we do once they break or stop working? We recycle them.
Students from the St Petersburg College in Florida, U.S, in association with a local TV broadcaster and the Pinellas County, produced a documentary aimed to educate viewers about what happens to the waste we generate each day. Entitled Away: A Story of Trash also takes us through a journey in time through the history of waste management.
The concept of generating energy from waste is not new but up until recently wasn’t a viable option because landfill tax wasn’t high enough to allow non-landfill technologies to compete with landfill. It is with that mind that UK Coal and Peel Environment are planning to build 11 EfW (energy from waste) plants in the North and in the Midlands.
Devon County Council and a local operating waste management company have come to an agreement to build Exeter’s first Energy from Waste (EfW) plant. The plant will have a capacity to divert and treat 60,000 tonnes of Devon’s residual municipal waste.
Hot on the heels of the Waste Review 2011 and CIWN and WRAP plan to reduce waste going to landfills, Defra and the ESA (Environmental Services Association) announced a new “responsibility deal” between Government and waste management companies to further improve the quality of waste management and recycling services.
Recycle Week 2011 is already under way as councils across the land are gearing up their initiatives to increase the levels of recycling of their communities. This year’s theme is “Home and Away” increasing the levels of recycling at home and on-the-go. Recycle Week 2011 started Monday 20th and will go till Friday 26th.
On Tuesday 14th of June 2011 the Government finally published the Waste Review like we announced here at the beginning of May. The main focus of this review is to increase the Government and councils commitment to increase the “frequency and quality” of waste management and collection across the UK.
Incinerating rubbish to produce energy is no breaking news but it could be a viable solution to reduce the amount of waste sent to our landfills every day. That is what Canadian-based company Enerkem is hoping to achieve, whose technology turns old utility poles and household garbage into ethanol.
The latest revision of the Waste Framework Directive, Europe’s primary legislation for waste management placed great emphasis on the waste hierarchy to ensure that waste is dealt with in order of priority and updated some aspects of waste control.
Since 2006, the year when the new Companies Act became law UK companies must report their environmental disclosure in their annual business’ reviews. Reports must be done in accordance with government guidance.
Segregation is probably the most important step of waste management and recycling services, be it for households or industrial sites. An effective waste management service commences with the encouragement of segregation of individual waste streams through the supply of suitable containers.
Back in June last year the Government announced it was to carry a full review of England’s Waste Policy, the main focus of this review was to find cost effective ways to reduce waste, maximise profits from waste management and recycling services and the effects of waste policies in local communities and individual households.
Detailed breakdown of waste streams showing Landfill V Recycling figures by client
The Government is proposing to allow local authorities to charge businesses for disposal of their waste, as well as collections.
The Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 list different types of household waste which local authorities can charge to collect but not to dispose of. This is a barrier to achieving the government’s plan for a zero waste economy.
The main proposals include:
> Giving local authorities the power to charge for the disposal as well as collection of waste from non-domestic properties
> Reclassifying waste from certain properties as commercial and not household waste
> Retaining local authorities’ discretion to decide when to charge depending on local circumstances
> Providing free disposal to charity shops and reuse organisations
> Retaining local authorities’ duty to collect waste from certain organisations for public health protection
> Restructuring the controlled waste regulations to make them easier to use.
The proposed regulations will be of interest to local authorities, managers of premises who currently pay a waste collection charge (such as prisons, hospitals and universities) and private waste contractors.
The regulations will not make any changes to charges for waste collection from domestic properties.
The regulation will be coming into force on 6 April 2011
The first recycling targets to reflect the relative carbon savings of how a material is reprocessed look set to be introduced in the UK as soon as 2011.
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