In-store recycling scheme comes to Tesco
May 1, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Tesco is now leading the way with its recycling services, and has just come up with a new scheme which could affect the way it packages food in the future. The new trial scheme is to take place at two supermarkets, the Tesco Extra stores in Ilminster and Guildford, as part of a six-week trial.
The idea is for customers to leave behind any packaging that they do not want or that they think is a waste which will then be sent for recycling. This is to make the process of recycling easier for customers, as it involves less work on their part, and as a result of the trial it could become more widespread at other Tesco stores in the future.
Tesco is currently leading the field when it comes to recycling in supermarkets. It has stated that it has 3,500 projects up and running at the moment to reduce waste, and has also claimed to have diverted 87% of its waste from landfill. It is hoped that this latest scheme will add to that record.
On top of allowing customers to recycle more easily, the secondary aim is to help Tesco work out how much packaging is required for certain products. If shoppers continuously reject certain packaging then this could lead to changes by the store to prevent manufacturers from using so much in the first place.
However, there will be a limit to how much packaging can be got rid of. Certain packaging has information on ingredients and other important advice, and shoppers will not be able to do without this.
Is £1billion worth of recycled waste enough?
April 24, 2009 at 4:27 pm
As the banking world hangs its head in shame at billions of pounds worth of losses, the UK’s recycling world can pat itself on the back. This year sees the UK proudly boasting a total of over £1 billion worth of recycling waste since 2003. Add up all the paper, the glass, the metal and the plastic that that we’ve prevented from going to landfills this decade, and it comes to £1.1 billion. It’s even more if you take into account the costs saved on landfill charges too.
According to the green website Recycle Now, households in the UK have seen at 30% growth in their daily recycled waste, which is roughly double the amount recycled in 2003. If you want even more statistics, then, in terms of weight, we’re looking at around 34 million tonnes of recycled waste over the last five years. It’s not just been good for the planet though. The boom in the UK’s recycling industry had led to the creation of thousands of new jobs in this sector; from collectors to crushers. It’s an industry that is providing the UK’s currently hard-pressed economy with a staggering £5.5 billion per year.
But could we be doing more? Is this enough? According to famous eco-designer Oliver Heath, who has pioneered some of the UK’s most innovative and environmental ideas for homes, there is always more we can do to push us towards a 100% recycling nation. At the moment we save nearly two-thirds of waste from landfill, but countries such as Holland, Germany and Belgium are still quite some way ahead.
Being in a deep recession it’s natural for prices all over the board to drop. The price of recyclable waste has not been an exception. There are some worries coming from environmental groups that we might start going into reverse, but the general consensus is that, with stats like 30 millions tonnes of CO2 emissions being prevented since 2003, we are certainly on the right road here in the UK.
Call for landfill tax to be returned to councils
April 17, 2009 at 2:26 pm
As of April 1st, the cost to councils of sending waste to landfill sites is to increase by £8 a tonne, raising the figure from £32 to £40. Calls are now being made both by the LGA (Local Government Association) and Friends of the Earth for the taxes to be paid back to councils in order for them to improve their recycling infrastructure.
The tax is likely to amount to £620 million in the financial year 2009/10, equivalent to around £30 per household. The chair of the LGA’s environment board has said that landfill tax is “quite literally costing councils the earth” and he is concerned that the costs will be passed on to the householder, by an increase of £70 in council tax.
He has said that it is incumbent upon the government to show in a “clear and transparent way” just how councils are reaping the benefit from the landfill tax paid. He feels that taking punitive measures against councils and householders who do not recycle sufficiently is not likely to improve recycling rates. Instead he would like to see landfill taxes being made available for councils to make recycling schemes even easier for householders to adopt.
Friends of the Earth have backed the LGA’s remarks and have said that they would also like to see a tax being imposed on councils who incinerate.
Council leaders are being urged to participate in the Landfill Tax campaign by writing to the appropriate minister outlining the effect on their council’s budget and services. For further details see the LGA website.
RecycleBank scheme to be introduced
April 9, 2009 at 4:21 pm
The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead agreed at a meeting last month to be the first council to trial the RecycleBank initiative which has proved so popular in America. It will start in May and there are high hopes that it will prove to be as successful as it has been on the other side of the Atlantic.
Special radio frequency identifiers will be fitted to bins which will calculate the amount of recycling put out by each household and rewards will be given by means of discounts and tokens which can be redeemed at participating stores.
No details are available yet to indicate where householders will be able to use the vouchers in the UK but in America companies such as Coca Cola, Evian, Foot Locker, IKEA, and Starbucks are key players.
The Conservative party has been keen to see whether using incentives rather than punishing people for not recycling will help the UK’s efforts and shadow environment minister, Nick Herbert, has praised the “fresh and positive approach” taken by Windsor and Maidenhead.
When Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of London last May he named RecycleBank in his environmental manifesto as a prime example of householders being rewarded for doing the right thing rather than being fined for doing the wrong thing. In the 500 American cities which have introduced the scheme, recycling rates have increased to as much as 40%. If it is successful in Windsor and Maidenhead it is hoped that the scheme will be introduced in other Conservative run councils throughout the UK.
Tesco pilots all-in-one recycling system
April 3, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Leading supermarket chain Tesco this week unveiled an exciting new way to recycle at its Shettleston store in Glasgow. Many Tesco stores already have recycling bins, but the new facility is an "all-in-one" system which simplifies the process and saves time and space. Designed in Scandinavia, the cutting-edge TOMRA machine allows consumers to recycle several types of waste at the same time, as well as recognising, sorting and compacting materials at the point of collection.
Shettleston’s £150,000 machine accepts glass, steel, aluminium and various types of plastic. The machine’s internal laser scans the material, before it is sorted and compressed or granulated. Crushing the material means fewer collections are required, which in turn means less lorries rumbling on our roads. So TOMRA offers a double carbon-saving solution: reducing waste going to landfill and cutting down on the fossil fuel used in collections.
At the official opening of the facility on 4th March, Scotland’s Secretary for the Environment, Richard Lochhead, said he was "delighted to open this automated recycling centre and try out this new facility for myself." Mr Lochhead also praised Tesco’s commitment to recycling, which is shared by the Scottish Government, and felt that close collaboration between the public and private sectors was the best way to reduce environmental impact.
Louise Goodland, speaking on behalf of Tesco, explained that the TOMRA machine had been introduced due to consumer demand, stating that customers has asked Tesco to make recycling "easier, more fun and more convenient." And as an added incentive, Tesco is offering green Clubcard points to customers for the items they recycle using the machine.
The supermarket giant intends to roll out the idea to further stores if the Glasgow pilot is successful. Stores earmarked include Ayr, Alloa and South Queensferry.
Action plan for sustainable clothing launched
March 27, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Last month saw the start of London Fashion Week and the industry looks all set to tackle its environmental footprint, with the launch of the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan, involving some 300 organisations from High Street retail outlets to designers and textile manufacturers.
The fashion industry has long been criticised for its throw away culture and is responsible for one and a half million tons of unwanted clothing ending up in landfill sites each year. In addition, it produces over 3 million tons of CO2, 70 million tons of waste water, and 2 million tons of waste.
The Action Plan will tackle four key areas:
- Improvement in sustainable design, fabrics and fibres, optimising re-use and recycling of clothes and issues around the cleaning of clothes
- Raising public awareness of the sustainability of clothes through education and the media
- Promoting markets for sustainable clothing
- Improved traceability across the entire supply chain
The Association of Charity Shops will be increasing the number of boutiques selling nearly-new clothes and sustainably designed new clothes, whilst big names such as Marks and Spencer and Tesco are increasing the amount of Fair Trade and Organic ranges and educating the public about the environmental benefits of using a 30 degree wash cycle.
Tesco and Adili, an online retailer, are working towards labelling certain items with a carbon footprint indicator, so that consumers can make educated choices in what they buy.
For further details of the Clothing Roadmap, see the website for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Earth’s Asprin?
March 27, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Mankind deposits billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Most of the world’s scientists now agree that this unnatural increase in carbon dioxide is directly responsible for climate change and ocean acidification.
Recent studies have shown that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere takes up to 10 years to build up in the upper atmosphere; this means that right now we are seeing the warming effects of the CO2 released in the 1990’s. World emissions have almost doubled since then.
Carbon Air Capture
Carbon Air Capture is the process of removing (and storing) CO2 from the atmosphere. It is increasingly beginning to be viewed as an imperative part of our transition to non-polluting energy technology. A company called Global Research Technologies has just successfully demonstrated the world’s first working prototype of such a device. The idea of such devices is that they will buy us a little time in which to reorganise our energy dependencies, removing the greenhouse gas from the air and storing it, in liquid form, in vast underground tanks.
The problem of carbon capture up to this point is that it could only be done at “point of entry”, on the chimney stacks of factories or power stations, and on the exhaust of every car. This is vastly expensive and extremely impractical; cars would have to pull a trailer at all times to collect exhaust emissions.
These devices can be placed anywhere. With enough of them we could control the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, eventually aiming to reverse the climate change that we have already caused, by returning CO2 levels to pre-industrial levels.
The device they have tested is one metre square and can remove 10 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. GRT (Global Research Technologies) intend to begin production of 10 metre square versions later this year. These will be able to remove 1000 tons of CO2 each year. Millions of these devices will be needed if we are to remove the 11 billion tons needed each year. This would sustain a concentration of carbon dioxide at twice pre-industrial levels.
Toxic waste illegally sent to Africa
March 19, 2009 at 12:51 pm
The Independent, Sky News and Greenpeace recently joined forces to expose the shameful practice being carried out by Britain and other European countries of sending toxic electronic goods, that should be recycled, to a number of African countries, including Nigeria and Ghana. The raw materials within these products are then extracted by people working at the African dumps, including children, who are put at significant risk by the highly toxic contents.
Computers, laptops, TVs and numerous gadgets that are broken beyond repair have managed to find their way into these countries, despite strict government regulations that insist any electric products that cannot be reused, known collectively as e-waste, have to be recycled or dismantled by specialist contractors.
The investigation followed the journey taken by a broken TV which had been fitted with a satellite tracking device, which started at a site run by Hampshire County Council and ended up in a market in Lagos, Nigeria via a London-based dealer.
A spokesman for Hampshire County Council said that they were “extremely disappointed” about the discovery, and an investigation has now been launched. The spokesman emphasised that they “do not condone the exportation of televisions that cannot be reused”.
Claire Snow, who is the director of ICER (Industry Council for Equipment Recycling), said that it is clear the system “is not working as well as it should”, which is an understatement.
According to the government, 450,000 tonnes of e-waste is treated appropriately every year, but The Independent has said that this means 500,000 tonnes of e-waste is not being accounted for, and is probably ending up on foreign soil where it will put people’s health at risk.
Supermarkets undermining recycling efforts
March 19, 2009 at 12:49 pm
A recent report published by the LGA (Local Government Association) has criticised supermarkets for using excessive amounts of packaging, much of which cannot be recycled. The report claims that around 40% of packaging will end up in landfill which will cost councils a whopping £360 million over the next two years.
The survey looked at the packaging in an average basket at eight different supermarkets. At the top of the table was Sainsbury’s with recyclable packaging of 67%, whilst Lidl was at the bottom with only 58%. In terms of the actual weight of packaging, Tesco’s gets the gold star with 645.5 grams whilst Waitrose gets a black mark with 802.5 grams.
The BRC (British Retail Consortium) has defended its members’ position saying that packaging is necessary to protect food, thereby reducing waste, and has criticised councils for the lack of recycling facilities. The original survey carried out by the LGA was published in Oct 2007 and since then, although the percentage of packaging able to be recycled has remained roughly the same, the actual weight of packaging has been reduced.
Councillor Margaret Eaton of the LGA hit out at supermarkets with their “cling filmed coconuts and shrink wrapped tins of baked beans”, saying that the public are tired of having to bring home so much packaging which leads to higher food prices and a high environmental cost too.
The BRC, however, has said that it is nonsense to suggest that retailers “swathe their goods in masses of unnecessary packaging” and has challenged councils to up their game.
Recycle any unwanted items with SnaffleUp.co.uk!
March 18, 2009 at 11:50 am
SnaffleUp.co.uk is a new web-site that gives people with unwanted but useful household items an opportunity to donate them to other people instead of throwing them away. Any item that is no longer needed but still has some life left in it can be added to the SnaffleUp website where other people can view it and arrange collection. Items already donated include TVs, dining tables, books, toys, computer peripherals, clothes and garden furniture.
“A lot of what ends up in landfill sites still has plenty of useful life left in it,” says SnaffleUp founder Chris Toynbee. “Why throw something away when you can give it to someone else who needs or wants it? And will use it! At a time when the credit crunch is making life harder for a lot of people, a source of free goods obviously has its attractions. SnaffleUp represents a new and easy way to help people save money while helping the environment at the same time.”
SnaffleUp differs from sites like Freecycle by offering a more user-friendly experience. The website has an ongoing improvement policy focused around a forum that lets users post suggestions for improving the site, which can then be voted for by other member of the SnaffleUp community.
Visitors to SnaffleUp do not need to register in order to start looking for or adding items, simply enter your postcode to search for items in your local area. When looking for a specific item, it is possible to set up email alerts that inform you when items of interest have been added. If you want to add an item, or arrange collection of an item, you need to complete a short and simple registration form. All items are offered free of charge and it is up to site users to negotiate any collection or delivery costs between themselves.
For further information please go to SnaffleUp.co.uk.
