With news on: Scotland wins Circular Economy award; B&M Waste plants trees to reduce carbon footprint; Mick George offers online commercial waste service; Biffa awarded highest ever safety rating, and; Courtauld Commitment signatories to double food redistribution.
Scotland wins Circular Economy award
Scotland has been named one of the world’s top circular economy nations at the Circulars Awards in Davos, Switzerland, this week (16 January).
Scotland was recognised as one of the world’s top circular economy nations
The Scottish Government – representing itself and its key agencies – received the Award for Circular Economy Governments, Cities and Regions at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.
Scotland was one of six finalists alongside organisations from China, Canada, South Africa and Europe. The award recognises partnership working between the Scottish Government, Zero Waste Scotland, SEPA and Scottish Enterprise to further the circular economy.
Commenting on the announcement, Zero Waste Scotland chief executive Iain Gulland said: “This award is testament to the hard work that’s going on in Scotland to make the most of the valuable resources we have and make them work for our future. It’s a clear endorsement for Scotland as a leader on the circular economy and signifies that our commitment to making things last is valued by the global community.”
Terry A’hearn, SEPA’s chief executive, said: “This award is not only great recognition for the ground breaking steps taken by our government to implement a truly circular economy, it also highlights the importance of partnership working to achieve this vision.”
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B&M Waste plants trees to reduce carbon footprint
B&M Waste Services has planted trees at its customer HUSCO International’s Runcorn site to off-set the carbon impact of their waste management.
Dave Curtis, director at B&M Waste Services, and Adam Baines, environmental health and safety manager at HUSCO International, planted 25 trees
Ten Common Alder’s and 15 Downy Birch’s were planted by Dave Curtis, director at B&M Waste Services, and Adam Baines, environmental health and safety manager at HUSCO International.
HUSCO International has achieved a 99.01% diversion of waste from landfill through the recycling initiatives implemented since its partnership with B&M.
B&M Waste have been carbon neutral for six years, and it continues to work with environmental consultants, Carbon Footprint Ltd, to further reduce its carbon impact. B&M’s carbon management operates a zero waste to landfill policy and uses a green fleet with Euro 6 plug-in hybrid cars.
Dave Curtis, director of B&M Waste Services said “We love customers that are as passionate as us when it comes to improving their environmental impact. For every tree we plant in the UK, a tree is protected in the Amazon, which is a great achievement for us at B&M Waste Service. We praise HUSCO for their commitment to sustainability and reducing carbon impact through effective waste management”
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Mick George offers online commercial waste service
Following the festive period, waste management company Mick George Ltd has offered businesses an online system to manage their waste, similar to its online skip hire service.
Mick George now offers an online quote builder
Companies can select bin size, quantity, waste type and collection frequency, and receive an instant quotation online.
With a full range of bins and containers and a large fleet of vehicles, Mick George Ltd collects all mixed recycling, general waste, food and glass, with 100% recycling rates attainable.
The flexible Commercial Waste service has been accredited with the CIWM Sustainability and Resource accolade, and the service has formed high profile partnerships, including with The University of Cambridge.
Jon Stump, finance director at Mick George commented: “We work with businesses of all sizes across a broad range of sectors to provide bespoke waste solutions. Our aim is to help them reduce and recycle waste thanks to our own state-of-the-art recycling centres which can facilitate 100% Landfill Diversion, assisting to meet environmental obligations.
“The online ordering service is something we introduced last year for Skips. Although it was somewhat unconventional at the time, feedback has been fantastic, so we’ve worked hard to provide this offering on another more of our services.”
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Biffa awarded highest ever safety rating
Biffa received its highest ever rating for health and safety
Waste management firm Biffa has been awarded its highest ever safety rating by the British Safety Council.
The company retained its five star award for the fifth year running and achieved a record rating of 97.59% for 2016 in the Council’s Integrated Safety, Health and Environment Quality (SHEQ) audit.
The audit provides an evaluation of an organisation’s SHEQ management system and benchmarks against current best practice techniques, providing an overall score and grading.
Claire Odd, Biffa’s group health, safety and quality manager, said: “We’re thrilled to receive this record rating because it not only recognises Biffa’s total commitment to this issue but also the hard work undertaken right across the business by our staff to make it a reality.
“This is the fifth year in a row that we’ve achieved a five star rating and we feel that our score was even higher this year because we were able to demonstrate to the auditors just how active and engaged our senior management team has been to lead and support this initiative. From the CEO down, we have been able to show the level of commitment and support needed to drive major improvements in Safety, health and the environment”
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Courtauld Commitment signatories to double food redistribution
Courtauld Commitment 2025 signatories are aiming to double the amount of food surplus sent for redistribution and help other companies increase the volume of redistributed food by 2020.
The signatories, which include many of the UK’s largest grocery retailers and food & drink manufacturers, are collaborating with WRAP to ensure that where food surpluses cannot be avoided redistribution is the first option considered.
Signatories have agreed a collective redistribution ‘ambition’ to double the volume of redirected food waste to at least 30,000 tonnes within five years – enough to prepare an additional 60 million meals, worth an estimated £60 million a year.
The Courtauld Commitment 2025 (C2025) is a voluntary agreement between organisations across the UK food system – from producer to consumer – to reduce food and drink waste by 20% by 2025.
The ambition aims to raise wider awareness amongst business partners within Courtauld 2025 signatories’ supply chains, and help encourage wider industry action. Signatory businesses will work with their suppliers to redistribute more food – retailers working with the manufacturers that supply them and trade associations encouraging their members to redistribute more.
The post News in Brief (18/01/2017) appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
