LAWR

Waste contract NEWS The month in resource management Efficiency savings Cherwell and South Northamptonshire merge councils to save money NEVER WALK ALONE - Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority's Ravenhead Recycling Centre at Burtonhead Road in St Helens reopened last month after an extensive redevelopment. VIPs and councillors along with pupils from Hope Academy, Newton le Willows, and members of the local community join the MRWA, Cheetham Hill Construction team (who redeveloped the site) and Veolia Environmental Services staff to officially reopen the Ravenhead Recycling Centre. 18 Local Authority Waste & Recycling May 2014 Plymouth City Council has installed cameras on its fleet of waste collection vehicles to Vehicle news Cameras keep watch on waste trucks Chesterfield Borough Council has awarded the tender to refresh its street cleaning fleet to Specialist Fleet Services (SFS).The tender involves the provision of two Schmidt Swingo 200 sweepers and includes maintenance. The contract term is four years and started in February 2014. Waste contract Chesterfield sweeps in the changes Anaerobic digestion (AD) specialist FLI Energy has announced that it has begun construction of the Euston biogas plant, a biomethane to grid AD project located on the Euston Estate in Suffolk, UK. Once operating to full capacity, the AD plant will generate 10 million cubic meters of biogas, the electrical equivalent of powering over 5,000 UK homes. The contract is worth £9m. Construction FLI Energy begins construction of biomethane-to- grid AD project move, the councils have cut five management posts and made two people redundant to create a single management team of six people. Veolia has announced a new nine-year contract with Brent Council. On top of the recycling, waste management, street cleansing and winter maintenance services already provided by Veolia, the new contract encompasses a dedicated communications, education and outreach team and fly-posting removal. Keith Thurman, supervisor of Landscape and Streetscene Services at Chesterfield Borough Council, said: "All our vehicle contracts go out to tender and although price is important it isn't the only thing we consider as other factors that give added value are relevant too. Suffolk Waste Partnership (SWP) has awarded waste management company Viridor with a four- and-a-half year contract to 'sort and market' mixed recyclable materials arising from house- holds in the county. The con- tract, which has the option to extend for a further two-year period, will see Viridor handle around 50,000 tonnes of mixed plastics, cartons, aluminium and steel cans, mixed paper and cardboard a year. Viridor awarded SWP deal Cherwell District and South Northamptonshire councils have merged their waste collection operations, in a bid to save the two local authorities £200,000 a year. As part of the Southwark's latest recycling figures show an increase in recycling, despite a drop in rates in almost half of all London boroughs.The borough's recycling rate for the third quarter of this year stands at an impressive 37% and would have been closer to 39% were it not for a recent policy change by the Environment Agency in how leaf fall is treated. Recycling behaviour has changed. Recycling figures Southwark's recycling rate continues to rise protect drivers and the council from 'bogus insurance claims'. The four-way cameras have been fitted following a 12-month trial, during which the number of accident and damage claims fell. According to the council, in the two years before the trial cameras were installed, there were 92 and 96 insurance claims made respectively. However in 2012/13 (during the trial) this number fell to 72, and for 2013/14, this dropped again to 65 claims. NEWS May 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 19 Pick up or pay up, a lot of noise and Will.i.am Stencils at 20 known dog-fouling hotspots in Croydon are reminding lazy dog-walkers that they should clean up when their pet leaves a 'calling card'. The bright yellow pavement stencils carry the simple 'pick up or pay up' message and will be backed by increased enforcement patrols by uniformed council officers. Dog fouling is a significant problem in some parts of the borough, and the new initiative is being introduced alongside other measures to cut down on littering and fly-tipping. The work is funded through an additional council investment of £100,000 to tackle these issues. Councillor Simon Hoar, cabinet member for community safety and public protection, said: "Those owners who think it's OK to just walk away after their dog has been to the toilet need to think about the way they are spoiling everyone else's enjoyment of the area. If they get caught they'll soon feel the pain of a fine and the possibility of an expensive prosecution." The noise of vehicles used in Guernsey's new kerbside collection recycling scheme are keeping some residents awake, according to reports from the BBC. Some people living in St Peter Port have complained about the noises made by the lorries when reversing.The vehicles used in the parish are operated by States Works. Malcolm Cleal, general manager, apologised and said switches had been installed so the reversing beepers could be turned off. British actress Joanna Lumley met up with R&B artist and eco designer Will.i.am in his home in Los Angeles to talk recycling last month. The US artist, and mentor on The Voice, opened up to Lumley on BBC One programme and talked about his life and about his partnership with the Coca Cola Company to launch Ekocycle. Ekocycle is a new venture that promotes recycling and turns waste plastics into clothes for Will.i.am's own fashion line and other items such as headphones. Part of the documentary showed Will.i.am take Lumley to his shop in LA to demonstrate how the waste plastic water bottles are turned into cotton for thread to make jackets and trousers. There is an old saying that you can judge a man or woman by the shoes they wear. They reveal whether he/she takes pride in the little things. But have you heard of the latest trend? LAWR understands that the latest trend is to buy trainers already scuffed. No joke! You can actually by an expensive pair of trainers already scuffed and unpolished for around £100 (delivery included). Has the world gone a bit mad? LOL Recycling Bits and Pieces The month in resource management NEVER WALK ALONE - Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority's Ravenhead Recycling Centre at Burtonhead Road in St Helens reopened last month after an extensive redevelopment. VIPs and councillors along with pupils from Hope Academy, Newton le Willows, and members of the local community join the MRWA, Cheetham Hill Construction team (who redeveloped the site) and Veolia Environmental Services staff to officially reopen the Ravenhead Recycling Centre. YOUR ROUND-UP OF THIS MONTH'S TOP STORIES ACROSS THE INDUSTRY As part of a programme of wildlife habitat improvements in the Royal Parks, a large floating wetland island has been built on the Serpentine Lake in London's Hyde Park. Made from recycled plastic materials, in- cluding plastic bottles, the BioHaven floating island has been planted with native aquatic plants. UK firms will need to adopt a circular approach to steal a march on their competitors, WRAP Waste contract WRAP urges businesses to adopt circular approach chief executive Liz Goodwin has warned. Speaking at the Sustainability Live Conference in Birmingham, Goodwin said that UK businesses had been slow to adopt a circular approach and that the linear model was "unsustainable". She also warned that the "throwaway linear economic model" could become a "millstone around the necks" of firms.

• Cover