Well done Co-op, you’re setting the standard again!
April 8, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Ever wondered what the supermarkets do with all those old receipts and forms? Well it’s not very obvious what all of them are doing, but the good old Co-op is once again leading the way in terms of ethical affairs. It is recycling all of its scrap paper and turning it into toilet roll and kitchen towel. And what’s better is… they are making it into children’s attraction!
The Co-op’s HQ near Stockport in Lancashire houses Waste Works, a facility to which children from local schools are invited to watch recycling in action. The plant recycles at a rate of three tonnes an hour, and at the same time teaches children methods and ideas for helping the environment in the commercial world.
Waste Works is an arm of a charity called Waste Watch – a very well established body with the experience of 20 years in the field. All the waste paper is brought to the plant using a special electronic van – it is often met by classes of up to 60 children, eager to see the technology of the future. It’s a very hands-on trip for the children – they get to make their own paper by the end of the day.
Spokesman from the Co-op Richard Cranshaw is very keen to promote ‘closed loop’ recycling, which means products are made from recycled goods, then go on to be recycled after their use, and so on. Waste Works wants to turn boring grey plants into vibrant and fun places to learn about saving the planet. Once again the Co-op is setting the standard.
No help for us to get rid of our computers
April 1, 2008 at 2:10 pm
What do you do with that old computer you are now ashamed to be associated with? It’s huge, it’s dusty and it’s got nothing on the new all singing all dancing model you’ve just got out of the box. Well it seems that none of us, including our local authorities, know what to do with the old machines and so many of them end up being perches for seagulls on landfill sites.
The consumer magazine Which? has raised the alarm on this issue and is making a strong case to be concerned. The magazine spoke to 109 of our local authorities and around 15% of them didn’t have a clue what people could do with them. "They just literally go into the landfill; they get smashed apart," so said one council representative.
Apart from the obvious and topical concerns in relation to the protection of the environment, there is also increasing awareness of data protection and many of the people who were surveyed didn’t seem to have thought about the files still on their PC when it’s dumped. If the government are being targeted, then there’s a good chance we all are, but 1 in 7 people in the survey said they’d just dump their computers on the tip.
So is it up to us or up to our councils? Well it’s a bit of both, but the councils have their minds on more regular items of waste it seems so it looks as though it might be up to us to make sure those old breeze-blocks of a computer go to the right place after use. Ring your local councils to find out more or you could donate your old computer to charities, such as Computer Aid, who find a new home for it.
M and S to charge for plastic bags as industry’s voluntary efforts at reduction are slammed
March 26, 2008 at 2:52 pm
At a time when supermarkets are competing to see whose green credentials are the best, Marks and Spencer have announced that they are to introduce a 5p charge for each plastic bag, in their food stores. The money raised will go to Groundwork, a UK charity committed to improving parks and play facilities for children.
According to Sir Stuart Rose, the chief executive for Marks and Spencer, if their customers were to reduce their use of plastic bags by 70% then 280 million fewer bags would be headed for landfill sites.
The announcement came on the same day as the grocery sector announced disappointing results, under a voluntary agreement to reduce the use of plastic bags. A reduction of only 7% had been achieved despite the fact that the agreed target was 25%. One retailer had even increased usage by 22%.
The Courtauld Commitment started in July 2005. Supported by 30 major retailers, it is currently a voluntary agreement but the Government has announced its willingness to make it compulsory if the grocery sector is unable to achieve results under the current system.
London Councils who are the driving force behind the London Shopping Bags Bill, a move designed to ban the single use of carrier bags, has hailed Marks and Spencer as a “shining light” and an excellent example to other businesses.
Marks and Spencer are confident that their customers want to reduce the environmental impact of their shopping habits and will be prepared to change their ways accordingly.
A village with no rubbish
February 27, 2008 at 10:56 am
More and more of us are finding it hard to imagine what life was like before we recycled our rubbish. However, one staggering little village nestled in the beautiful valleys of South Wales is going one better than everyone else and has recently told the world that they plan to be the first "zero waste" community in Wales.
St Arvans is a few miles down the road from Chepstow in Gwent and has been boasting very impressive recycling initiatives and targets over the years. Its residents already recycle around 77% of all of their household waste. There are weekly kerbside collections for all, which take paper, cans, glass, foil, plastics, textiles, tetrapak cartons, green waste and food. On top of this, the local recycling site also pops around again during the week to see if anything else needs to be picked up. In one week, roughly half of the 261 homes in the village didn’t produce any rubbish whatsoever. They are a pioneering community, but hold on, they haven’t stopped there.
They wanted to do better and wanted to become the benchmark for the rest of Wales and the UK. Local residents turned out in force last year to regular meetings and 95% of the village signed a new "Zero Waste Pledge". Officially launched in June 2007, the principle idea comes more from what the buyer does before they even buy something as opposed to what they will do with it once they are finished. Although they will still recycle as much as ever, the new "zero scheme" will make all residents buy only products that can be either reused, repaired or recycled after use.
A mother of five, Lou Summers, has been positive and vocal about the scheme. At the moment supporters have signed a participation pledge for a minimum of three years. Mrs Summers said, "It’s something I believe in. It is going to teach the children that they need to recycle and reuse. The benefit is your peace of mind. There is not a lot left in our bin, we don’t even fill one black bag a week."
We might all think we have heard the facts and figures a hundred times about why we should make recycling our top priority in all of our homes. The Local Government Association has told us time and time again that over 26.8 million tonnes of rubbish is dumped on a landfill every year. If you do the sums then you’ll find out that’s half a tonne per year each. We’re being embarrassed by the rest of Europe and now we’re being embarrassed by the likes of the people at St Arvans. It’s a good job they are showing the rest of us how it’s done.
Report shows rodents on the decrease
February 22, 2008 at 10:53 am
We have all heard the alarming statistic that, when walking the streets of our major cities, we are never further than a few feet away from a rat (the precise distance depends on who is telling the story). It was no surprise therefore that when councils introduced alternate week collections of household waste, rats hit the headlines. Indeed, a judge in Oxford told a council tax rebel that he agreed that her rodent problem had arisen because of the council’s fortnightly collection of waste.
Just over a year ago, the National Pest Technicians’ Association (NPTA) published a report blaming “recycling mania” for a 39% increase in brown rat infestations between 1998 and 2005. The report declared that if the problem continued to escalate, the UK could face a major public health problem.
The recycling sector was unimpressed with the research and accuracy of the report, and Jeff Cooper of the Environment Agency argued that unless rats were chewing their way into wheelie bins, fortnightly collections could not possibly be responsible for the increase in infestations. Indeed, they could have a positive effect, since less rubbish was being placed in black bin bags, which offered easy pickings for the rat population.
Twelve months on and the NPTA have changed tack, reporting a 23% decrease in the brown rat population. Their report this year concludes that alternate week collections “properly managed and supervised at grass roots level are working fairly well” and lays the blame for rodent activity on excessive amounts of food being put out for the birds, and home composting issues. The decrease in numbers could also be related to the fact that, with some councils discontinuing their free pest control service, some householders no longer report their rodent problems.
The solution to home composters attracting rats, lies in the positioning of the plastic containers. If left on soft ground, rats are able to tunnel up into the composter. If it is not possible to site the composters on concrete, then strong but fine wire mesh can be used to cover the bottom of the container, rendering it impenetrable for rodents. For added peace of mind, the composter can be dug into a six inch deep hole in the ground, and the displaced soil used to bank up around the base.
There are also various things that you can do to make your garden less of a magnet to rats.
- Do not put cooked food or egg shells into the compost bin.
- Cover the raw food scraps with other materials such as grass cuttings.
- Make sure you give the contents a good shake from time to time as the rats like to be undisturbed.
- There are various compost bins on the market which are guaranteed to be rat proof although these tend to be more expensive than the normal type.
- If you feed the birds in your garden, do not put bread or cakes out as this will attract rats. Instead, stick to seeds and nuts in proper bird feeders and keep the surrounding area swept.
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.
