LAWR

February 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 25 COMMUNITY Eastern Waste Disposal (EWD Recycling) has gone pink for 2014. At the start of the year the waste management and recycling company heralded the start of a 12 month campaign to support and raise money for Cancer Research UK. EWD Recycling will make a donation for each delivery made by our pink skip lorry and for each delivery and collection made by our pink tipper lorry for all EWD Recycling customers. The money raised will be used to further cancer research. EWD Recycling's Cancer Research campaign continues as Edward, EWD Recycling's sponsored guide dog, has successfully passed his two-year training and been placed with his owner where he'll continue to provide help and support into the future. To keep up-to-date with the company's progress over the next 12 months check its website www. easternwastedisposal.co.uk to view our current donations. EWD said that it can be contacted on 01206 307070 for those wishing to make a donation. Textile recycling banks at fire stations across Wiltshire have contributed to the Fire Fighters Charity raising more than £1m in the last four years. The recycling scheme, which focuses on textiles - including unwanted clothing, shoes and household items - is managed for the charity by a consortium of textile recycling companies. Wearable items are sent to developing countries to help those who are experiencing extreme poverty, while other items are recycled into day-to- day products such as car insulation and furniture padding. The Fire Fighters Charity said the scheme had seen more than 7,000 tonnes of clothing diverted away from landfill sites, growing year on year. It now receives an annual income of £300,000 from funds raised from recycling of unwanted clothing, shoes and household textiles. First put in place at Kettering Fire Station thanks to Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, there are now over 500 clothing banks at fire stations across the country. More than 40 fire and rescue services now support the charity's textile recycling scheme. A new head of waste and recycling has been appointed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Rick Brunt, current head of field operations for the North West of Scotland and Northern England Division, replaces Graeme Walker who retires from HSE after 37 years service. The head of waste and recycling will work closely with industry and will lead a unit of inspectors, policy officials and support staff. According to the HSE, although the number of injuries to workers has fallen over the last five years, waste and recycling remains one of Britain's higher risk industries with 10 people killed in 2012/13, double the lives lost in the previous year. RDS Technology has appointed Angela Simkins as managing director. Simkins has 25 years general m a n a g e m e n t experience and more recently has spent ten years in an electronic engineering environment supplying to both on-road and off- road sectors. RDS is a major supplier of hi-tech electronic monitoring and control systems to the mobile machinery industry. " LARAC chair Joy Blizzard has announced that she is standing down from the organisation – sooner than expected. She said that a secondment opportunity has come up. Blizzard has been involved with LARAC for over a decade as South West Rep, communications officer and then chair. Her highlights for the organisation included many radio appearances, when the issue of waste and recycling was controversial. Andrew Bird has been announced as the new chair of LARAC. Movers & shakers Roaring recycling A pair of African lions have roared with happiness for Christmas trees after a Cambridgeshire zoo appealed for people to donate them for recycling, according to the BBC. The trees are being reused by Linton Zoological Gardens as big cat toys, bio-fuel and, if they still have roots, to enrich the zoo's enclosures. Manager Dawny Greenwood told the BBC that the scented trees are "almost like catnip" for the resident big cats. She explained: "They just love the trees, it gives them hours of fun." Catnip, sometimes known at catmint, is a plant of the mint family and can cause many cats euphoria. The zoo's tigers and snow leopards also play with the trees, those that are "beyond their best" are used for the zoo's bio-burner. Greenwood said: "This provides additional heating and hot water to help run our zoo at this very expensive, cold time of year." Donations have so far ranged from families dropping off a single tree to local nurseries donating unsold stock. Community roundup

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