Crafty ideas for recycling
February 18, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Instead of throwing your recyclable materials into the appropriate bin, why not use a bit of imagination and put them to good use in creating something new? If you have children, it can be an excellent way of keeping them occupied on a rainy day. It costs next to nothing and is a great way of making them environmentally aware.
There are all sorts of sites on the Internet devoted to ideas for crafts using recyclable materials, many of which allow you to post your own ideas.
You will find ideas on these sites for every occasion, from Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas, and even Chinese New Year. Some of the sites allow you to do a search depending on the occasion and level of difficulty.
The craft ideas are not of course confined to children, some of the more complicated ideas include making a lamp from a glass bottle. This involves using a drill to cut the glass, or alternatively burning a piece of string or heating a wire until it is red hot – definitely not one for the kids to tackle! Another idea is to hollow-out a hardback book for storing valuables whilst at home or travelling. This requires at least some adult assistance, due to the use of an extremely sharp knife. Full instructions can be found here.
Children can enjoy recycling everyday bits and pieces. Some simple ideas include:
CD’s – cover with felt and use as a coaster. Alternatively you could thread string through the hole and hang the CD from a tree. This will scare the birds away from your vegetable patch.
Plastic bottles – cut to size, cover with pretty fabric, lace or ribbon and use as a pot pourri holder. If you are not trying to scare the birds away from your garden using old CD’s, why not see if you can get them to nest. This can be done by cutting suitably sized openings high up on the sides of the bottle, then hanging the bottle from a tree.
Toilet or kitchen roll middles – cut to size to use as a napkin ring and decorate with acrylic paints, ribbon, raffia or lace.
Newspaper – make a paper hat and decorate using paint, glitter, sequins or whatever you have lying around.
Egg Boxes – paint or cover with paper and decorate before using as a handy storage solution for golf balls or jewellery.
Milk Cartons – another one for the birds! Cut holes in the opposite sides of a milk carton and paint with non-toxic paint. You could also add ice-lolly sticks for the roof. Make holes beneath the openings and put a length of wooden dowel through for a perch and you have an attractive bird feeder.
Before you start, make sure that you have a good supply of scissors, glue, scraps of fabric and any pretty sequins or ribbons for decorating your work. If you need papier mache for modelling don’t forget that this can be made very easily using flour, water and strips of torn up newspaper. For full details of how to make it see here.
M and S team up with Oxfam in clothes recycling initiative
February 12, 2008 at 2:43 am
If your wardrobe has received a boost this Christmas, you may be planning a trip to the charity shop with your old clothes. If they happen to originate from Marks and Spencer and you have an Oxfam shop near you (find your nearest branch here) then you are in luck, because the two organisations have banded together in an unusual initiative designed not only to boost Oxfam’s funds but also to cut down on the one million tonnes of clothing sent each year to landfill sites in the UK. Many of these clothes are perfectly serviceable and could be sold in charity shops, and the rest could be recycled.
A £5 voucher will be given for each bag of clothes donated to any of the charity’s 790 shops, provided at least one item bears the M and S label. The vouchers are valid for a month and can be redeemed against purchases of at least £35 in the clothing, beauty and homeware departments of Marks and Spencer. There is nothing to stop people donating multiple bags of clothes, each one with an item from M and S, thus obtaining more than one voucher, although a spokeswoman said that the retailer would be monitoring the scheme carefully for signs of abuse.
The initiative was announced as part of Marks and Spencer’s Plan A Scheme which promotes environmental awareness in an effort to make the store carbon neutral within the next five years.
The director of Oxfam, Barbara Stocking, said “Recycling and reusing clothes – and anything else we can sell – has always been central to Oxfam’s fundraising, as well as being good for the environment. Through our unique textile sorting facility and the resourcefulness and skills of our specialist staff, Oxfam is able to make the most from all the clothes we receive. People’s unwanted clothes really will raise much-needed money to help people living in poverty.”
Oxfam is a bit of an expert in the textile recycling field, being the only major charity in the UK with its very own facility for sorting and redistributing textiles. Based in Huddersfield, its Wastesaver plant receives 12,000 tonnes of clothes, textiles and shoes each year which cannot be dealt with at store level. This mass is sorted and resold either in shops, online or to wholesalers at home and abroad. Any items which don’t make the grade, are sold for a variety of uses such as mattress filling, insulation or carpet underlay.
Whilst a large percentage of the UK population buys their underwear at Marks and Spencer, you may rest assured that you are not going to see any holey socks or greying Y-fronts adorning the shelves of Oxfam. Items of lingerie, underwear, hosiery, socks and swimwear are excluded from the scheme for reasons of hygiene and one assumes lack of demand!
Backlog produced by Christmas recycling
January 31, 2008 at 12:57 pm
This Christmas we were encouraged not only to fork out for the latest gadgets and organically sourced turkeys but also to consider our green conscience. Smiths and Tesco wanted our old Christmas cards. The local council would relieve us of our Christmas trees, in some cases turning them into wood chips. The bottle banks were gasping for our empties, and children up and down the country soon learned to hide their boredom, in case their mothers suggested an afternoon of peeling off the sellotape so that the wrapping paper could be recycled too.
With the excesses that Christmas brings it is little wonder that, if we want to reduce the harm done to the environment, desperate measures are called for. Each day in the run up to Christmas, the Royal Mail delivers 150 million cards and packages. 7.5 million Christmas trees are purchased. 83 square kms (similar to the area of Guernsey) of wrapping paper is used. We get through 750 million bottles and glass jars and 500 million drinks cans. This all adds up to a huge amount of rubbish headed for landfill sites unless we adopt a greener attitude. But what does going green mean for the recycling industry? How can it cope with the seasonal surge in recycling?
Material Recycling Facilities are reporting increases of up to 50% this Christmas, whilst some local councils say that all records have been broken. Some operators think that it will be Feb before they manage to clear the backlog and in the meantime it all has to be stockpiled. Whilst some see this as a major cause for concern, others take a more relaxed approach and have put measures in place such as longer opening hours to deal with the problem. One facility in the Midlands has seen its weekly average rise from 650 tonnes to over 1000 in the weeks following Christmas and estimates that it will take six to eight weeks to clear.
Joan Ruddock, the minister responsible for waste and recycling, has put a figure of 190,000 tonnes on the extra material to be recycled as a direct result of Christmas. This is excellent news for local authorities, who are always under pressure to boost their recycling figures. Liverpool, for instance, had a recycling rate of 12.7% in 2006/07 and wants that to rise to 20% in 2008. Last year in the city 400 tonnes of glass, plastic, paper, cardboard and wrapping paper was recycled over Christmas but this year that figure has increased to a whopping 1,900 tonnes, almost a fivefold improvement. Berni Turner, executive councillor for the environment, is confident that thanks to a good advertising campaign and the efforts of the people of Liverpool, the city will exceed the Government’s target for 2008.
Household recycling centres have reported a huge increase in the amount of electrical gadgets, in particular televisions, reaching their depots – proof if we needed it that we are still a throw away society.
Herts council to charge for excess non-recyclable waste
December 13, 2007 at 11:47 am
Broxbourne Council in Hertfordshire has begun to charge householders who generate too much non-recyclable waste in a six-month trail which began in November. The pilot scheme will cover 3000 homes, whose residents will be given 26 purple waste sacks, free of charge.
Waste put out for collection in bags other than the official purple ones will be left for the householder to dispose of and they could also face enforcement action. The council, however, recognises the time it can take for residents to establish a recycling routine and is taking a lenient view in the first 4 weeks of the trial. Extra bags will be available at various outlets at a cost of £2.80 for ten.
Broxbourne’s current recycling rate, excluding green waste, is 13% and the council would like to see this increased to at least 20%. The council’s website explains that this result could be achieved if every household in the pilot area recycled an extra 2 newspapers, 3 glass bottles and 2 food cans each week. They say that only about 50% of householders in the area are currently recycling properly.
Although Broxbourne restricts kerbside recycling to paper, cans and glass, there are 26 Neighbourhood Recycling Centres which cater for cardboard, plastics and textiles. Those resistant to the recycling message may well wonder if their council has the force of the law behind them, but under Section 46 of the Environment Protection Act of 1990, councils can require their residents to “place the waste for collection in receptacles of a kind and number specified.”
A spokesman has said that the council aims to make recycling easy for its residents and that the pilot is to be viewed as a learning process, from which feedback will be sought. If successful, it will be introduced throughout the area.
Other parts of England have introduced schemes to limit the amount of residual waste going to landfill, with varying degrees of success and popularity. Several councils have introduced compulsory recycling with good results. Schemes such as having fortnightly collections have proved unpopular because of bad smells, especially in summer, and the risk of rodent infestation with its implications for public health.
Perhaps one of the most successful schemes is that of Eden council in Cumbria. It was introduced in 2004 and has been responsible for increasing Eden’s recycling rate to an impressive 40%. It applies to 80% of its households and works again on the principle of charging for bags over and above the 2 blue ones provided free of charge each week by the council. Large households of 6 or more are entitled to an extra blue bag per week, as are those who have a medical condition which generates extra waste. Paper, cans and glass are recycled kerbside in all but rural areas where this is restricted to paper and cardboard. There are, in addition, 70 recycling centres in Eden for recycling items as diverse as engine oil, books, textiles and foil.
Fly-ash recycling a potential in the UK
December 13, 2007 at 11:14 am
Fly-ash is produced from burning coal in power stations and consists of the small particles collected in the filters of the power stations’ chimneys. In the past, fly-ash was taken up by flue gases and released into the atmosphere, causing health and environmental problems. Currently, the majority of fly-ash is dumped in landfill sites but, with the associated financial and environmental costs, recycling the product has become increasingly important.
35% of fly-ash is recycled worldwide, with a variety of uses:
- Replacing Portland cement in concrete
- Engineering uses in constructing embankments
- Stabilising soil for use in building roads
- Making “flowable fill” used instead of compacted earth or granular flow
- Using as a mineral filler for the voids in asphalt concrete
- Making roller-compacted concrete for the construction of dams
- Manufacturing bricks, although problems occur when the bricks come into contact with moisture and expand
- Turning human waste into fertilizer
The UK sends some 66% of their fly-ash to landfill or uses it in lower value applications such as earthworks and road construction. This compares with only 5% in Germany, where the lion’s share is used for high value applications, such as concrete, grout and cement.
Thomas Duve, the chief executive of Evonik Power Minerals, thinks that the UK needs to monitor the quality of its ash better, as well as create a network with other European countries to exchange know-how and sell the product. By having proper control systems in place and possibly blending it, the fly-ash would become a far more marketable product in the construction industry. Mr Duve also suggested that the UK’s lower value fly-ash could be exported to those parts of Europe where it is in high demand for reprocessing, whilst importing better quality fly-ash into the UK from abroad to create demand.
Since January 2007, Evonik have been working to help UK power stations market their fly-ash. The company, which has helped over 50 German power stations market over 4 million tonnes of fly-ash per year, sees fly-ash not as a waste product but as a valuable by-product which can “help reduce the carbon footprint in this energy sector”, according to their marketing advisor, Hans Peter Ickemeyer. He explains that, because the production of products such as cement is so energy intensive, using concrete made from fly-ash for a third of the product could have a highly beneficial environmental impact.
Ribena to use 100% recycled bottles
December 11, 2007 at 3:46 pm
It may not always be great for our teeth but now our favourite blackcurrant friend Ribena is taking notice of recycled packaging. Ribena, who are owned by the drug company GlaxoSmithKline, announced that they are putting plans into operation for all of their plastic bottles to be made from recycled plastics and remain 100% recyclable afterwards. The ready-to-drink bottles are now ready-to-recycle as of October this year, and Ribena are to roll out the same for their squash concentrate bottles too.
Ribena are by no means the worst in this field, with 40% of their bottles being made from recycled materials and a plastic called Polyethylene Terephthalate. Why raise the bar? It’s a costly venture but one Ribena feel is well worth it. Managing Director of Ribena, Anne MacCraig, says:
“This hasn’t been without its challenges but it is a major step forward for sustainable packaging. With nine out of ten consumers saying they think it would be good if packaging contained recycled plastic, we’re confident that they will welcome the move to 100 percent recycled plastic.”
Another drinks manufacturer, Innocent, were the first company ever to produce and sell a packaged product that is 100% recycled PET, meaning that every single material has come from a previous recycling process. Innocent signed up to an agreement called the Carbon Trust, which is another scheme to keep companies’ carbon footprint in check. Innocent expect to also see a 55% reduction in their own footprint through the use of these recycled techniques.
The co-founder of think-tank and consultancy agency SustainAbility, Julia Hailes MBE, commented by saying:
“I’m delighted that the makers of Ribena are leading the way in moving to 100 percent recycled plastic in their bottles. This is really significant in terms of saving energy and reducing waste. I hope other food and drink producers will follow suit.”
Reverse vending machines to reward recycling
December 11, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Plastic bottles account for an annual 23,000 tonnes of waste, much of it arising from drinks consumed away from home. With the Government keen to boost recycling rates in public places in an attempt to reduce the waste ending up in landfill sites, the so-called �reverse vending machines� are arriving at just the right time. Shoppers in Milton Keynes and Peterborough shopping centres now have the opportunity to do their bit for the environment and be rewarded for doing so.
The public can post their plastic bottles into the machine, which will determine whether it is made of PET (polyethylene terephthalata, a thermoplastic polymer resin which is part of the same family as the polyester used for man-made clothing). If so, it will be crushed by rollers and dropped into one of two internal compartments. Each of these compartments hold up to 400 bottles, depending on size and when they are full, staff at the shopping centres will be alerted so that the machines can be emptied.
If the bottle is non-PET and therefore not recyclable, it will be rejected and deposited into a side-compartment where it will be analysed to see what materials the public are trying to recycle. When a recyclable bottle is deposited, the shopper is rewarded by a voucher offering money off or offers for goods.
The vending machines are made by Recycling Options Ltd, based in Staffordshire, and the six month trial is funded by the pharmaceutical and healthcare firm, GlaxoSmithKline. The scheme is being managed by the charity Recoup. The project officer, Lucy Shields, says: "We believe that in areas with high public through flow, selling ‘food and drinks’, large quantities of plastic bottles, other packaging and food waste will exist. This trial will bring the opportunity for everyone to engage in recycling out of the home as well as in the home."
Shopping centres considering installing one will be pleased to know that they are also easy to install, requiring only a standard 13 amp socket and plug, and a telephone connection for recycling data to be transmitted. They require very little maintenance, are not noisy, only cost around 15p worth of energy to run each day and are not dangerous. The aperture has various sensors to detect any hands or arms and can immediately stop the rollers, which are in housed sufficiently deep in the machine to avoid any risk of accident or injury to users.
If the pilot scheme in Milton Keynes and Peterborough proves successful, perhaps the day will come when every venue with a vending machine will have a reverse vending machine situated close by, enabling us all to do our bit for the planet.
Recycling impact on fly-tipping
December 11, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Recycling schemes are all very well but what effect do they have on fly tipping? No-one likes to see rubbish strewn all over their streets or blighting the countryside but unfortunately, this is an increasing problem in many parts of the UK. Sadly not everyone is a good citizen, and when councils start restricting kerbside collection of non-recyclable waste from householders, then the temptation for the unscrupulous to fly-tip seems too enormous to resist.
During the year 2006-2007, local authorities spent £76 million clearing up fly-tipping mess and over three-quarters of that came from householders. Figures from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) indicate that the number of fly tipping incidents rose by 5% from 2005-2006 but that more action was being taken by local authorities and government alike to address the problem. 1371 prosecutions were carried out and 94% of these were successful.
It seems that the worst offenders are in Liverpool, where the city council had to fork out a staggering £15.6 million last year to clear up 1.3 million incidents. The way forward, according to a spokesman from Defra, is that “initiatives to boost recycling should be supported by fly tipping strategies aimed at preventing the illegal dumping of waste.”
Businesses too are guilty of irresponsibly dumping waste. However, figures show that the problem has actually decreased by 10% from 2005-2006, with the number of illegally dumped black bags of commercial waste dropping from 59,630 to 53,566. This may be as a direct result of local councils more than doubling the number of inspection visits made to businesses to monitor the situation.
The District of Easington Council in County Durham has excelled in its attempts to tackle fly-tipping, not only reducing the number of incidents from 473 (2005–2006) to 422 (2006-2007) but also increasing the number of enforcement actions from 164 to 197. Ian Hoult, the Environmental Enforcement Manager, said that their success had come about by erecting signs warning people of the consequence of their actions, and by increasing patrols and surveillance work.
As of last year, the council has had the power to stop and search any vehicles which they believe may be carrying waste without the proper waste carrier registration. Anyone found to have fallen foul of the regulations, can be fined up to £5000 and have their vehicle confiscated. George Patterson, an Easington District Councillor, points out that householders must also take responsibility and, when having work done on their houses, should ensure that the waste is disposed of by a regulated carrier or they too may face a fine.
Other councils which have done well with their fly-tipping initiatives include Islington, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Worthing, and the Minister with responsibility for recycling and waste, Joan Ruddock, would like to see other councils follow their example. She adds that members of the public and businesses alike must do their bit and report fly-tipping in an attempt to tackle the problem together.
Ban on plastic bags – good news or bad?
November 16, 2007 at 9:14 am
They have been banned in South Africa, Taiwan and Bangladesh; taxed in Ireland; become the subject of much debate in cities from Edinburgh to San Francisco; and brought headline fame to the small Devon town of Modbury. There is no doubt about it: plastic bags have become a contentious issue.
It is estimated that, globally, between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used each year. That works out at over one million each minute. The environmental impact is huge and the problem is not just the fact that many of the bags end up in our over-stretched landfill sites, or that the production depends on non-renewable sources such as petroleum and natural gas. What is significant is that the plastic used to manufacture the bags does not biodegrade but instead photodegrades, breaking down into ever decreasing toxic particles, which contaminate the world’s soil, water supply and end up in the food chain, being accidentally ingested by animals.
An estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic finds its way each year into the sea, with devastating consequences for marine wildlife. In fact, it was after the filming of a BBC documentary in Hawaii, that wildlife photographer, Rebecca Hosking, set up the campaign to ban plastic bags in her home town of Modbury.
Talking of the hundreds of dead albatross chicks that she saw, Miss Hosking said: “There were carcasses everywhere I looked. You couldn’t walk in a straight line without stepping on a dead chick. Plastic was bursting out of the bodies.” Modbury’s answer to the problem has been to sell paper or recycled cotton bags, but have they, and environmentally friendly towns like them, got it right?
Research carried out by the Government shows that 59% of us reuse our plastic bags for everything from disposing of our rubbish, “poop-scooping” when walking our dogs, wrapping up our baby’s dirty nappies, and disposing of our cat’s litter. When a tax was introduced in Ireland, the free supply of plastic bags dried up and people actually ended up buying more plastic than before the tax was introduced, in the guise of bin liners and nappy bags.
When retailers changed to paper bags, the environmental impact was even greater: it takes four times as much energy to create a paper bag than it does a plastic bag. The trees cut down to produce the paper are no longer able to absorb greenhouse gases and, when degrading, paper produces even more greenhouse gases. Paper bags also take up far more room in landfill sites because of their bulk, although they do degrade more quickly than plastic.
Cotton bags do not fare much better. A cotton bag weighs around eleven times more than the average plastic bag, creating a far bigger carbon footprint bearing in mind the need to transport it from the other side of the world. Consideration also has to be given to the poor working conditions and meagre salaries of those making these cotton bags.
All in all, the ban on plastic bags is a thorny issue. There’s a lot of money out there for the person who can invent a bag, which does not deplete our natural resources in its manufacture, and which disappears as if by magic, when no longer needed!
Recycle your roof and the sky’s the limit!
November 9, 2007 at 8:48 am
Recyclenow are making an effort to justify their slogan of the possibilities are endless with a new recycling initiative.
Vinyl roofs made from PVC that are currently keeping the rain off our homes can actually be recycled and reused for various household and industrial purposes. The durable material from old roofs can be melted down and then made into things such as speed-bumps, curbs on pavements in car-parks and various other places where tarmac is used. The PVC membrane is also very useful as lining for carpets, traffic cones, road signs and barriers.
The business of roof recycling is thriving in Europe but here in the UK we are lagging behind somewhat. Gordon Harris, the Managing Director of Advanced Roofing, who are trying to lead the charge, said: “My view is that people who use the stuff will make this scheme work. Advanced Roofing currently recycles all its PVC waste. We know there are recyclers who will take all the membrane waste we can give them. If enough roofing companies take part, then I’m sure we could organise a workable collection system.”
The reason this hasn’t been a pressing concern for these roofing companies and for the individual home-owner is because the life-span of the PVC based material on the roof is around 50 years. So, for the most part, they are still up there and doing their job. In the next 10 or so years, however, this will all change and companies such as Advanced Roofing are urging us to be ready in time.
Mr Harris plans for the process of recycling to operate on a ‘chain’ type of system, or as he puts it, a ‘milk-round’. The roof cells will be gathered up by roofers and then stockpiled until enough is stored to necessitate another contractor then taking it away to be recycled. This will prevent the 1% that is currently already going to landfill becoming any higher.
This is a slow-burning area of the recycling world and, for the time being, it can afford to be this way to some extent. But within the next decade the after-life of old PVC roofs will shorten, they will need to be disposed of, and it will then become another recycling responsibility for us all.
