With news on: FCC outlines Brexit opportunity; actions agreed to tackle black plastic packaging; companies commit to simplify food labels; and Biffa expands green waste.
FCC outlines Brexit opportunity in Parliamentary Review
Waste and resources business FCC Environment has featured in the latest copy of the Parliamentary Review – a document issued to politicians and policy makers summarising key developments in Westminster over the past year.
FCC Environment has featured in the latest copy of the Parliamentary Review
In the Review’s Environment section, FCC’s group chief executive Paul Taylor has authored a piece looking at the opportunities for the UK waste sector once the UK has left the EU.
In the article, Mr Taylor notes that FCC is calling for a ‘step change’ in the way in which the UK’s waste and resources sector is viewed, adding that Brexit provides an opportunity to ‘have a frank conversation about the value in waste’.
Mr Taylor emphasised that FCC would like to see a re-focus on “maximising resource productivity within the UK economy” and more attention on developing Energy from Waste (EfW) capabilities.
“The reality is that the UK lacks an established market with EfW” said Mr Taylor, adding that the UK waste industry is shipping waste to other European countries to meet their energy needs – which he described as “counter-intuitive and unsustainable”.
The Parliamentary Review was established by former minister David Curry in 2010.
An e-copy of The Parliamentary Review can be viewed here.
Actions agreed to tackle black plastic packaging
A cross-industry group has agreed a range of new actions and commitments to tackle the ‘long-standing challenge’ of recycling black plastic packaging.
A cross-industry group has agreed a range of new actions and commitments to tackle recycling black plastic packaging
The group – which is led by recycling charity RECOUP – includes members from packaging manufacturers, packers, brands and retailers, to material re-processors, trade associations and independent specialists.
According to RECOUP, the work is being conducted through reviewing available and developing sorting technologies and recycling markets to understand optimal opportunities, and implementing feasible, commercial long-term sustainable solutions.
The group has developed a Black Plastic Packaging Recycling Roadmap, and is assessing and progressing actions within three objectives: roll out the use of tried and tested detectable pigment; develop business models and new technology solutions to sort existing black plastic packaging material; and, assess and implement opportunities to change from black to an alternative colour.
This will feed into best practice guidance for brands, retailers and local authorities on how they should collect and use black plastic packaging.
Further developments and progress will be reported by the end of 2017 with the next group meeting to be held in the coming weeks.
Companies commit to simplify food date labels
The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) – a network of 400 of the biggest consumer goods companies across 70 countries – along with Champions 12.3 has approved a Call to Action to standardise food date labels worldwide by 2020.
The Consumer Goods Forum has approved a Call to Action to standardise food date labels worldwide by 2020
The Call to Action says retailers and food producers should take three important steps to simplify date labels and reduce food waste by 2020:
1) Only one label at a time
2) Choice of two labels: one expiration date for perishable items, and one food quality indicator for non-perishable items
3) Consumer education to better understand what date labels mean.
The CGF Board of Directors ‘unanimously adopted’ the Call to Action to simplify date labels, including companies like Tesco, Kellogg, Walmart, Campbell Soup, Bimbo, Pick n Pay, Nestlé, Carrefour and Unilever. The announcement expands national efforts to streamline date labels in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan to the rest of the world.
Biffa expands Green Waste Club
Municipal contractor Biffa is expanding its chargeable Green Waste Club (GWC) and Wheelie Clean bin washing services.
A Biffa Green Waste Club collection vehicle
A GWC operation has been launched in Herefordshire to provide a garden waste collection and recycling service for residents in Hereford, Ledbury, Leominster, Bromyard and Ross-on-Wye.
GWC members get their own 240 litre wheeled bin for collecting garden waste. Every fortnight, bins are emptied into Biffa’s 26-tonne GWC recycling collection truck, and the contents taken for processing into compost at Rose Hill Recycling in Dymock.
Herefordshire is Biffa’s seventh Green Waste Club.
The current membership stands at nearly 60,000, and over 150,000 tonnes of green waste have so far been recycled into compost and soil conditioner.
Biffa’s newest chargeable offering, its Wheelie Clean kerbside bin washing service, has also begun operating in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils area.
As part of the service, a self-contained specialist vehicle follows Biffa collection crews, cleaning the wheeled bins and food caddies of customers.
The post News in brief (25/09/2017) appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com General
