With news on: Biffa and WasteAid launch partnership; Salvation army highlights campaign success; Wiser opens Vietnam office; Tarmac teams up with Hamilton for SRF; 18,000 sign up for Mansfield garden service.
Biffa and WasteAid launch partnership
Biffa and WasteAid launched a partnership this week which they said will contribute to an international effort to mitigate the impact of plastic waste on the environment.
The partnership, announced in April (see letsrecycle.com story), will see Biffa invest in WasteAid plastic recycling programmes in developing countries and provide specialist advice to avoid plastic ending up in landfill and in the oceans.
Michelle Jeffery and Ben Robinson with the beach hut made plastic bottles on Brighton Beach
Biffa pointed to statistics which show approximately 8.3 billion tonnes of man-made plastic have been manufactured since it was first invented in the 1850s, of which 6.3 billion tonnes is waste.
The company added that it is “committed to the reprocessing of plastics”, with 90% of the total volume of plastic Biffa collects being recycled in the UK.
Launching the partnership on Brighton beach with a beach hut built from plastic, Michael Topham, chief executive at Biffa, commented: “Plastic is a global convenience and an environmental inconvenience, creating mammoth amounts of waste every day. The message on each of those bottles ought to be that the world faces a global plastic crisis. Reuse and recycling, in developed and developing countries, must be a big part of the answer.”
Zoë Lenkiewicz, head of programmes and engagement at WasteAid, added: “Each year, vast amounts of plastic waste reaches the oceans from the poorest parts of the world. That is why WasteAid has launched its Widening the Net appeal, to empower people in places like Cameroon to turn ocean-bound plastic into useful products.”
Salvation army highlights campaign success
The Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL) has praised the impact of a campaign it launched at the start of the year to tackle textile waste.
In January, the company launched its ‘Recycle with Michael’ initiative with primary schools in a bid to divert thousands of tonnes of unwanted textiles away from landfill.
It says since then, over 64,000 pupils have participated and a “phenomenal” 68.88 tonnes of unwanted clothes and shoes have been donated.
More than 64,000 pupils participated in the scheme, donating 68.88 tonnes of unwanted clothes and shoes
Designed specifically for primary school aged children, the Recycle with Michael initiative has a typical ‘school bag donation’ mechanic, but also included free downloadable school materials including presentations, posters and lesson plans which teach its environmental and charitable message.
Kirk Bradley, head of corporate partnerships at the Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd, commented: “We are delighted with the success of our Recycle with Michael campaign so far. When we started promoting the initiative in January we only trialled it in 13 counties so now we are looking forward to rolling this campaign out to the rest of the UK.”
Wiser opens Vietnam office
Environmental consultancy firm, Wiser Environment, has opened a satellite office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Wiser notes that Vietnam is forecasted to be one of the fastest growing economies in the coming years
The facility will seek to provide environmental and management system consultancy services to European and Vietnamese businesses operating in the region.
The company pointed to statistics from the Department for Trade and Industry, which forecasted that Vietnam will be one of the ten fastest growing economies in the coming years.
Joana Santos, the company’s senior consultant, said: “Vietnam is a very vibrant and exciting place to live and do business. There are great opportunities for European investors, particularly in the area of waste management, and I’m delighted to have the chance to support the businesses that are taking these steps and contribute towards a sustainable development in Vietnam”.
Tarmac teams up with Hamilton for SRF
Hamilton Waste and Recycling has signed a contract with Tarmac to supply the company’s Dunbar cement plant in Scotland with solid recovered fuel (SRF).
Coupled with the installation of an SRF storage and handling system on site over the next few months, the contract will enable the Tarmac plant to increase the proportion of sustainable fuels it uses.
The company says the SRF will be manufactured from waste materials which can’t be recycled.
Oliver Curtin, Dunbar plant manager, said: “SRF is an excellent fuel for the cement manufacturing process and has been used at Tarmac’s other cement plants in Derbyshire and South Wales for years. We are pleased to be adding it to the range of waste-derived fuels supporting our operations at Dunbar.”
18,000 sign up for Mansfield garden service
Mansfield district council has confirmed that more than 18,000 households have signed up to its garden waste service this year.
Most people – 15,437 – have opted to pay online by card, either as a one-off payment or by a yearly direct debit. A total of 2,629 have opted to pay by PayPoint at their local post office.
More than 18,000 residents signed up to the garden waste service
The council said it changed the brown bin service this year to make it more cashless, digital and streamlined as part of the authority’s wider efforts to improve efficiency by increasing the use of technology.
Customers are now encouraged to sign up and pay for the £30-a-year service via the customer portal on the council’s website and mark their house number clearly on their brown bin.
Mariam Amos, strategic director at the council, said: “As with any new system, there have been a few glitches and we would like to thank everyone for their patience while we bed in this new way of working.
“Registering online and setting up a direct debit is by far the easiest way to access the service and maintain continuity of service from year to year and ensures customers get maximum value for money.”
The council serves approximately 100,000 residents and achieved a 32.6% rate in 2017/18.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Plastic
