With news on: Litter clean up savings; Frugalpac coffee cup partnership deal; MetalMatters increases Warwick metal capture rate; Giant coffee cup bins for Manchester, and; Devon proposes Brynsworthy waste transfer station.
Councils could save £300m in litter clean up, ESA study shows
ESA’s policy paper focuses on how manufacturers can help cover litter clean-up costs of their products
Local authorities could save £300 million each year in litter clean-up costs, according to an ESA report published yesterday (11 October).
The Environmental Services Association (ESA) paper examines how Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) can be used to fund litter clean up.
ESA’s policy paper, “The Role of Extended Producer Responsibility in Tackling Litter in the UK,” considers how manufacturers of cigarettes, chewing gum and fast food could contribute to the clean-up costs of their products.
ESA’s executive director, Jacob Hayler said: “Cigarette butts and chewing gum are some of the most littered items in the UK. Transferring the cost of preventing and clearing up these items from the public to the private purse could save local authorities in the region of £300 million each year.
“ESA’s policy paper recommends the introduction of producer responsibility levies on the manufacturers of some of the most frequently littered items. This money would be used by local authorities to cover litter clean-up costs or to help fund anti-litter campaigns.
“We are also calling on the Government to consider the role that Extended Producer Responsibility could play in its forthcoming litter strategy.”
A copy of the report can be downloaded on the ESA website.
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Frugalpac to trial ‘recyclable’ coffee cup
Starbucks have already agreed to evaluate the Frugalpac cup
Frugalpac has teamed up with Ireland-based Cup Print to create a paper coffee cup which can be recycled more easily.
The Frugalpac cup, the company claims, is competitively priced and can be recovered in ‘normal’ paper mills.
It is the first in a line of new Frugalpac packaging materials, with three other products based around the same technology due to be launched over the next nine months.
Starbucks have already agreed to evaluate the Frugalpac cup, which featured in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s War on Waste programme on BBC Television in July, with a view to trialling it.
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Warwick MetalMatters campaign boosts capture rate
Warwick district council has increased its kerbside recycling of metal packaging by 28% over six months, helped by the industry-funded communications campaign, MetalMatters.
Launched in October 2015, the MetalMatters campaign directly targeted all 53,000 households in Warwick, urging residents to recycle more of the metal packaging they use in their homes.
The project was funded by the MetalMatters industry partnership and SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, who hold the collection contract with Warwick district council.
Households received two leaflets to remind them which items can be recycled in their recycling collection and explain what happens to the metal packaging once it has been collected for recycling. This was supported by signage on recycling collection vehicles, community display boards and cinema advertising.
MetalMatters is a communications programme designed to support the UK’s current kerbside recycling schemes, funded by a partnership of metal packaging manufacturers, fillers and reprocessors.
The programme is delivered by the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro), which works with local authorities and their waste collection partners. To date the MetalMatters campaign has run in 73 local authority areas, directly targeting 4.5 million households.
MetalMatters released a case study video, ‘MetalMatters in Warwick,’ which Alupro will be screening at the LARAC conference.
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Giant coffee cup bins offer recycling solution in Manchester
Eleven bins in the shape of giant coffee cups are to be been placed on Manchester’s streets
Manchester is set to receive giant coffee cup bins as part of a campaign to recycle the cups into new products for the first time.
Environment charity Hubbub’s high street recycling scheme, #1MoreShot, kicks off today (12 October), calling on the people of Manchester to recycle their coffee cups.
Over three months, eleven bins in the shape of giant coffee cups are to be been placed on one of Manchester’s busiest streets, Oxford Road. The bins collect paper cups only, which will then be recycled.
Every year, 2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away in the UK, of which only an estimated 1% is recycled. The campaign will test a new way of reducing paper cup waste, collecting 20,000 cups to create 15,000 plastic flower pot holders that will be used in community gardens around the city.
Gavin Ellis, co-founder of Hubbub, said: “We urgently need to change the way we dispose of the 2.5 billion paper cups that are thrown away every year, as currently only 1 in 400 cups are being recycled. If this is successful, it can be extended to other cities across the UK as a number of local authorities have already put their name forward.”
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Devon proposes Brynsworthy Waste Transfer Station
Devon county council has announced it is working to deliver a new waste transfer station for the North Devon and Torridge areas.
Artist’s impression of the new waste transfer station
According to the local authority, the proposed facility would enable the waste produced in the area to be dealt with in a more cost effective and sustainable manner.
Currently, unrecyclable household waste produce in North Devon and Torridge areas is landfilled, which the council has said is the “least preferred and least sustainable method of managing waste”.
The waste transfer station would enable the waste to be used for more beneficial purposes such as energy recovery. The facility will handle approximately 45,000 tonnes of waste per year.
A potential site has been identified for a new Waste Transfer Station, located adjacent to the North Devon district council depot at Brynsworthy, Barnstaple.
Before the planning application for this new facility is submitted, the council is calling for comments from residents on the proposal until 30 October 2016. There will also be a public exhibition tomorrow (13 October) at the Brynsworthy Environment Centre.
The council estimates construction will take place across 2018/19 and the facility will be operational by winter 2019.
The post News in brief (12/10/2016) appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Metal
