With news on: Carton plant to reprocess paper cups; Parliamentarians visit Veolia’s facility in Southwark; NI announces £2.6million funding from carrier bag levy, and; Calderdale reviews health and safety measures.
ACE UK carton plant to reprocess paper cups
UK waste collection company Simply Waste Solutions will collect and supply used cups to the ACE UK facility to be recycled into new paper products.
Pulper and conveyor at the ACE food and drink carton recycling plant
The Alliance for Beverage Cartons & the Environment (ACE UK), which represents UK carton manufacturers, established the food and drink carton recycling plant with with operator Sonoco Alcore (see letsrecycle.com story).
In partnership with Sonoco Alcore, ACE UK assessed the capabilities of the mill’s existing technology and will now recycle cups, alongside cartons, into new paper products.
ACE UK’s dedicated carton recycling facility was opened in 2013 and is capable of recycling up to 40% of the cartons manufactured each year for the UK food and drink market. It processes cartons collected through the industry’s own bring bank system, or from the 64% of UK local authorities which collect cartons for recycling at kerbside.
Simply Waste, the logistics arm of the Simply Cups paper cup recycling scheme, is the only current supplier of used cups to the plant and offers the Simply Cups scheme as one of a number of recycling options.
James Capel, Simply Waste’s chief executive and founder, commented: “This arrangement is the culmination of an initial discussion with ACE UK over two years ago.
“The process has not been easy, and challenges have needed to be overcome, but with advice from ACE UK we have developed a formula where we can now supply consistently high-quality, uncontaminated bulk-loads of used paper cups for reprocessing; a standard that no other waste management company has yet achieved on a consistent basis.”
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Parliamentarians visit Veolia’s facility in Southwark
MPs and peers visited Veolia’s integrated recycling facility in London last week, organised by the All-Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group (APSRG).
Parliamentarians at Veolia’s Southwark facility
Attendees included Neil Parish, chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Dr Alan Whitehead.
Veolia constructed the £60m Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) as part of its 25-year waste management contract with Southwark Council. Operational since 2012, the facility is able to process all of Southwark’s household waste and recyclables, helping improve recycling rates and reduce the environmental impact of the borough’s waste.
The parliamentarians visited the site to learn more about how waste management techniques can revolutionise the way we go about improving recycling rates, as well as reducing the impact that waste has on climate change through its greenhouse gas emissions.
Neil Parish MP, chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, said: “It was a pleasure to visit the Veolia facility in Southwark and see its incredibly efficient recycling system. It’s a state of the art facility and just shows how much more of our rubbish we could save and recycle. When we recycle and reuse waste, everyone benefits.”
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NI announces £2.6million funding from carrier bag levy
Environment Minister Michelle has allocated £2.6million to environmental projects across Northern Ireland
Environment Minister Michelle has allocated £2.6million to environmental projects across Northern Ireland, funded through the carrier bag levy.
A total of 36 projects across 33 organisations have received grants of between £6,290 and £252,500 from the Environment Fund.
Among the initiatives funded are projects to recruit and train volunteers for large scale bird monitoring surveys, carry out habitat and species conservation activities, maintain and promote long-distance walking routes, and encourage recycling.
The Minster said: “I am pleased to announce this funding for 2017/18 which is taken from the revenue raised by the carrier bag levy. It will be used to help projects which sustain, improve and enrich our natural environment in Northern Ireland.”
She added: “The aim of the carrier bag levy is to reduce the number of carrier bags in circulation, thereby reducing waste. I am pleased that the most recent statistics show that the people of Northern Ireland have embraced the reuse and recycling of shopping bags.
“This significantly reduces the amount of plastic and paper going to landfill which not only helps the environment, but also saves money for local councils in landfill tax.
“By also using the money raised to fund environmental projects we are maximising the positive impact of the carrier bag levy.”
The Environment Fund is one of the mechanisms through which the proceeds of the carrier bag levy have been used to enable not-for-profit organisations and councils to deliver key environmental priorities across Northern Ireland.
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Calderdale reviews health and safety measures
Calderdale council is improving health and safety measures across its operations across its operations – including waste collection.
Calderdale is reviewing its health and safety measures
Some of the improvements include the introduction of medicals for all those who drive Calderdale fleet vehicles. This change in policy was brought in following the Glasgow refuse accident.
Reverse ‘auto brake’ technology has also been installed in the vehicles introduced as part of the new waste contract with SUEZ to stop the vehicle if someone stepped out while it was reversing. In addition to this, the vehicles are also fitted with cameras and sensors which monitor stationary and moving objects and will activate staged braking, to assist the driver.
Calderdale council’s Cabinet Member for Business Change and Customer Service, Cllr Lisa Lambert, said: “The annual Health and Safety report gives members an opportunity to see the progress made in reducing and preventing accidents, and is also a reminder of the importance of Health and Safety and how it should be a factor in all decision making.
“Calderdale has a good safety record, but it’s important we use new initiatives and technology in order to maintain this, and learn from the mistakes of other high profile cases.”
The post News in Brief (9/12/2016) appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
