With news on: Five years of Wales carrier bag charge; EU beverage carton recycling rates grow; Gloucestershire joins Duty of Care drive; Recycling earns £6,000 for Torbay charities, and; Pictorial history of Biffa is published
Recycling residents earn £6,000 for Torbay charities
Five local charity and community projects have each received a share of £6,000 thanks to residents who recycled for the Torbay Green Points scheme.
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Council and Green Points representatives with members of the charities that received donations
The scheme, which launched in May 2015, gives residents of Torbay the chance to earn donations for local charities and the chance to win vouchers when they recycle.
When registering for the free initiative, residents are placed into one of five groups, depending on where they live, and earn Green Points for their community by interacting with the website and recycling as much as they can.
The five communities have been competing to earn the most Green Points and the biggest share of the £6,000 prize money. Members of the winning community vote for which charity or community project they’d like their community to support.
Councillor Mark King, executive lead for Planning, Transport and Housing at Torbay council, said: “It’s great to see so many of our residents getting involved with this scheme, which is both helping to increase the amount of recycling in Torbay and support some of the great charities in the area. I’d urge all residents to get involved and help influence which charities are supported over the next 12 months.”
Waste and recycling tonnages are measured across each of the communities and communities earn Green Points when more is being recycling and less thrown away. Members of the scheme can earn extra Green Points for their community by individual actions such as making use of a garden waste collection point or ordering a bulky waste collection.
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Wales celebrates five years of carrier bag charge
Saturday (1 October) marked the five-year anniversary of the introduction of the Welsh Government’s Single Use Carrier Bag charge.
Wales became the first country in the UK to implement a minimum charge of 5p on all single use carrier bags on 1 October 2011.
In the following five years, the policy has contributed to a significant reduction in carrier bag usage across the country. Other parts of the UK have since adopted similar policies.
A recent study published by Cardiff University revealed that of 1,143 shoppers observed leaving four supermarkets in Cardiff only 14% were seen to be carrying out their shopping in only single use bags (compared to 57% using bags for life).
And, the study showed support for the charge in Wales had increased from 75% to 80% over the period of the study.
The Welsh Government’s own review of the charge, published earlier this year, also identified that two-thirds (66%) of those surveyed agreed that ‘The charge has helped to reduce littering in my local authority area’.
Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths said: “We were proud to become the first country in the UK to introduce a small charge for the single use of carrier bags.
“We introduced the policy with the intention of reducing litter, improving the appearance of our communities and influencing consumer behaviour. I think we can all agree it has been a resounding success.
“We are now looking at how we can build on the success of the charge. New powers in the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 will open the way for further developments to enable Wales to take the lead in recycling and re-use across Europe.”
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EU beverage carton recycling rate continues to grow
The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) UK has welcomed the latest figures on carton recycling in the EU, showing that 44% of beverage cartons were recycled in 2015.
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Beverage carton recycling rates
Continuing a ten-year upward trend, the figure is equivalent to approximately 400,000 tonnes or over 16 billion used beverage cartons – recycled at more than 20 paper mills in Europe.
However, while the total recovery rate (recycling and energy recovery) reached 74% for 2015, there are still wide differences in recycling achievements across EU member states.
In those that efficiently separate packaging waste collection, beverage carton recycling reaches up to 70%.
Annick Carpentier, director general of ACE in Brussels said: “This difference in performance implies that recycling of milk or juice cartons used in homes across Europe can be increased further. We suggest that collecting all packaging separately, combined with a ban on landfilling packaging waste would significantly boost the Circular Economy.”
Richard Hands, chief executive of ACE UK, which represents carton manufacturers Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc, said: “Our sector is committed to supporting and promoting beverage carton recycling and the continuing upward trend in the EU carton recycling rate in 2015 is good news.
“In the UK our focus has been on building access to recycling facilities for all stakeholders. In the last five years the number of UK local authorities collecting cartons at kerbside for recycling has risen to 64% in 2016 from just 31% as recently as 2011.
“And when carton recycling bring banks are included 92% of local authorities now collect cartons for recycling.”
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Gloucestershire joins Duty of Care drive
Gloucestershire’s Joint Waste Team has become an ambassador for the ‘Right Waste, right Place’ Duty of Care campaign, which aims to help small businesses comply with waste disposal laws.
In a recent survey published as part of the campaign, 96% of businesses in the south-west considered themselves to be up to date with waste regulations. Yet over 50% of these businesses were at risk of fines as they didn’t know where their waste ends up, and didn’t keep waste transfer notes.
By not knowing what happens to their waste or employing unregistered waste disposal companies, companies run the risk of inadvertently allowing their waste to be fly-tipped.
Between 2015/16, over £50,000 was spent in Gloucestershire investigating 2,139 fly tipping incidents. It is illegal for businesses to dispose of waste or recycling in normal household bin collections, at recycling banks or household recycling centres.
A new website, www.rightwasterightplace.com provides practical guidance and information for businesses about how to properly dispose of waste.
Cllr Sue Coakley, chair of the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee, said: “We are proud to be ambassadors for the ‘right Waste, right Place’ campaign, as it helps our small businesses to protect themselves.
“We know that the majority of companies want to do the right thing, and this user-friendly website offers practical advice on safe and efficient business waste disposal. We don’t want businesses in Gloucestershire to risk fines by not complying with the rules and we want all waste disposed of properly.”
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Pictorial history of Biffa is published
International Waste Management consultant Timothy Byrne has written and compiled a book about the history of waste management firm Biffa.
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The book covers the development of Biffa’s fleet of dry and liquid waste collection vehicles from the late 1970’s to the 2000’s
‘A Pictorial History of Biffa Waste Services – dry and liquid waste collection vehicles’ explores the key acquisitions made by Biffa of UK waste management companies.
A specialist in waste collection and waste transfer operations, Mr Byrne also covers the development of Biffa’s fleet of dry and liquid waste collection vehicles from the late 1970s to the 2000s.
The ownership of Biffa by British Electronic Tractions (BET), the development of Biffa’s Belgian subsidiary and later on the acquisition of Biffa by Severn Trent Water plc are also included.
One of the pivotal figures is Richard Biffa Jr., who was instrumental in Biffa’s national strategic growth and was a founding member of the National Association of Waste Disposal Contractors (NAWDC) – which later became the Environmental Services Association – when the organisation was set up in the late 1960s.
The book recounts the journey of how Biffa became one of the UK’s leading waste management companies for both its commercial and public sector clients.
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