With news on: Waste site director ordered to pay back £179,000; International day for food waste awareness to begin; WRAP publishes food waste reduction roadmap progress report; and, Eco Sustainable begins waste education consultation
Waste site director ordered to pay back £179,000
The Environment Agency has said a waste site operator has been ordered to pay back over £179,000 that he obtained “while running an illegal waste operation”.
The Environment Agency says the case shows it will ‘come after’ those who run illegal waste sites
According to a statement from the Agency, Barry Connally, 70, of Chaceley, Gloucester, was the director of Rhino Recycling that operated a waste treatment facility on the QinetiQ Industrial Estate in Pershore.
In June 2019, Connally was sentenced to 12 months’ custody suspended for 18 months and also ordered to complete 160 hours’ unpaid work in the community.
The Environment Agency went on to bring confiscation proceedings against Connally to recover the proceeds of crime at Winchester Crown court, in a case heard on Thursday, September 24.
Alongside the fine, he was handed a four month suspended sentence for disposing of a portion of his assets between September 2019 and July 2020, the Agency said.
Speaking after yesterday’s hearing a spokesperson for the Environment Agency said:
“This case shows that we’re not just content to prosecute those who run illegal waste sites, we’ll also come after them to get back the profits they made from their illegal activities”.
International day for food waste awareness to begin
Tomorrow will mark the first International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste
Tomorrow ( 29 September) will be the first International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste by the United Nations.
The Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, said that at EU level, “important measures” have been taken to reduce food loss and waste, by making sure volumes are measured and reported on.
Ms Kyriakides said: “The figures speak for themselves: in the EU, it is estimated that 20% of all food we produce is lost or wasted, yet at the same time 33 million people cannot afford a quality meal every second day. There is no excuse for food waste. It leaves the most vulnerable citizens exposed. It is detrimental to the environment. And it has huge economic cost. Surplus food should feed people who need it, not go in the bin.
“We urgently need to redesign our food systems. This year, COVID-19 has not only forced us to rethink our way of life and adapt to new realities. The pandemic has also proven the importance of sustainable food systems, from how we produce and process food, to the supply chains that bring it to our homes.
WRAP publishes food waste reduction roadmap progress report
Resources charity WRAP has published its annual progress report for the UK’s Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, which shows memberships to the initiative have now surpassed 210.
More than 60 businesses now publicly report food surplus and waste data
The report, published on 24 September, shows that 70 new organisations signed up to the Roadmap in the last 12 months, and the UK has been named “exemplar” in its attempts to reach the Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 (SDG12.3).
WRAP said that retailers feature “prominently” in the report, with 54 Tesco suppliers now sharing food waste data publicly.
The report shows “growing adoption” of WRAP’s Target-Measure-Act approach to food waste.
Marcus Gover, WRAP CEO said, “In January we reported that the UK was mid-way to completing its part in SDG12.3. Despite huge disruptions to the supply chain since then, food waste has remained a priority for most food and drink businesses and the Roadmap has become a blueprint towards our Courtauld 2025 targets, and the global goal.
“We must prevent a further 1.8 million tonnes of food from going to waste by 2030. Most from our homes, but more than half a million tonnes through the further actions of retail, manufacturing and hospitality and food service businesses. We need around 400 more food businesses to commit to the Roadmap and Target-Measure-Act. It’s also important that more businesses publish their data and insights, to help accelerate the collective effort. The rest of the world is looking to the UK to continue to lead the way, and the stakes are too high in terms of the environmental, economic and social costs of food waste for us to fail.”
Eco Sustainable begins waste education consultation
Eco Sustainable Solutions is inviting residents, community groups and fellow businesses to suggest ideas for a new education centre which will “tackle” the county’s waste challenge.
Peter Hardy, commercial director at Eco Sustainable Solutions
The company said that it is keen to encourage “better use of waste locally” and stop it ending up in landfill.
It also wants to process a further 60,000 tonnes a year at a proposed energy recovery facility at its Eco Park site near Bournemouth Airport.
Eco’s commercial director Peter Hardy said: “Education is absolutely vital to addressing our collective waste challenge.
“In the BCP Council area and across Dorset, a significant amount of waste still ends up in landfill.We want to be a good partner to BCP and Dorset councils in their wider efforts to fight the war on waste and tackle climate change.
“We believe that investing in a visitor and education centre alongside our energy recovery facility at Parley will help with that.”
The post News in brief (28/09/20) appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
