LAWR

NEWS ement YOUR ROUND-UP OF THIS MONTH'S TOP STORIES ACROSS THE INDUSTRY Recycling Bits and Pieces Landfill gold mine and 'green crap' on-based artist Tasmin Green. Green was once an archaeologist, discovering and nt colourful collages on canvas and board. Her work is inspired by the movement or the UK's historic landscape. Every collage is handmade from magazines and lasting finish. will design, finance, build and operate infrastructure to manage up to 300,000 tonnes of residual municipal waste every year. Recycling Kit maker wins Nigerian contract Northern Ireland-based EMS Recycle [see picture below] has announced that it has delivered on its first big order to Africa after securing a major contract with a key Nigerian buyer. The large-scale recycling plant specialist said it has just completed on a deal to supply WestAfricaENRG in Nigeria with a full, purpose-built recycling plant which is capable of processing more than 400,000 tons of waste per year. The contract involved the design and production of a complete waste-sorting station, which will support 300 local jobs, as well as additional specialist recycling equipment which will sort waste materials mechanically to prepare it for further recycling. Far right to left EMS Recycle managing director Harry McCourt, WestAfricaENRG chief executive Paul O'Callaghan and WestAfricaENRG chairman Otunba Babajide Roger An information technology specialist has been searching a landfill site in south Wales hoping to find a computer hard drive he threw away which is now worth over £4m. James Howells's hard drive contains 7,500 bitcoins - which is a virtual form of currency for use online. It had sat in a drawer for years and he had forgotten it contained the bitcoins, which he obtained in 2009 for almost nothing, when he threw it out. However, as LAWR went to press, a single bitcoin's value hit $1,000 (£613) for the first time. It means Howells's collection is now worth $7.5m (£4.6m). A few years ago Howells, who works in IT, had dismantled his computer after spilling a drink on it."I stored a couple of parts away like the hard drive, and the rest of the bits and pieces which were still working I sold for spares," he told BBC Radio Wales. "I kept the hard drive in a drawer in my office for three years without a second thought - totally forgot about bitcoin all together. I had been distracted by family life and moving house." Howells later realised what was left on the hard drive. He said: "I had been hearing a few stories of a chap from Norway who had bought a number of coins for a very low price and had sold them for a high price and that's when I got back into checking the price and seeing what I'd done. When I found out what the price was, the penny dropped and I realised the coins I have 'mined' were on the drive I had thrown away." Elsewhere, Southwark Council removes on average 220 tonnes of flytipped waste every month, but the things that some people discard illegally still have the ability to shock even the most seasoned officers. Over the last few years, Southwark's fly-tipping team have removed flytipping including the following items: o A goldfish in a bowl still alive in Dulwich o £85,000 in a black bag in the Aylesbury area o Bags of sex toys - approx 50 dildos and handcuffs in Bermondsey o Marijuana cuttings, lighting equipment and a tent Prime Minister David Cameron was at the centre of a storm last year over whether he ordered aides to "get rid of all the green crap" from energy bills in a drive to bring down costs. The language, attributed to Cameron in the Sun newspaper by a senior Tory source, sparked a furious reaction from campaigners accusing the prime minister of abandoning his promise to run the greenest government ever. Although Downing Street said it did not "recognise" the phrase as one used by the prime minister, Cameron's team has not explicitly denied that he had ever referred to environmental policies as "green crap". Former Liberal Democrat Cabinet member Chris Huhne was questioned about what he thought of the Prime Minister's comments at the Anaerobic Digestion & Biogas Association's annual conference last year. He said that he was more inclined to believe the Prime Minister over the Sun about these reports. January 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 15

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