LAWR

COMMENT 4 Local Authority Waste & Recycling June 2014 It is quite easy being green, when you know how At the start of the year I realised that I had too many clothes. I realised this fact when I was trying to look for a dress I had not seen for a long time. I did find the item eventually but it took me a while to retrieve it from the suitcase it was in. I also looked at my money manager application online and it was a bit of shock to find out the amount of money I spent on clothes in one year. This made me realise I had to get rid of some of my clothes, stop spending money on new ones and reduce my impact on the environment. The pile up of clothes I had accumulated over the years wasn't helped by the fact that my dress size has pretty much stayed the same since teenage years (sickening I know). I decided to donate some of my clothes to charity and I also took some of them to my first car boot sale. The car boot sale went OK and the clothes were worth a few bob. According to WRAP, while leaving around 1.7 billion items (30% of clothes) unworn at home, worth around £30 billion when purchased new, last year UK consumers spent £44bn on new clothing – equivalent to £1,700 per household and around 5% of retail spend. I think working in the resource management industry has made me more conscious about waste and the environment. I am not the only one who has changed their attitude. Increasingly, adult consumers want to make more positive lifestyle choices where possible. They can be helped on this journey by their children. Children love recycling. In this edition of LAWR, the Salvation Army Trading Company (SATCoL) reports on its textile recycling scheme for schools – Recycle With Michael. The scheme is designed to increase awareness of textile reuse and recycling from an early age, participating schools are provided with a colourful clothes bank, branded with the fun kids' recycling champion, Michael. The idea is you get them young and embed positive attitudes from the start.This scheme brings the SATCoL closer to its local authority partners and the communities it works in. Schools gain a fun programme as well as the opportunity to raise money for their own projects, local authorities see a rise in recycling rates and the Salvation Army obtains funds from the scheme in order to help support its work throughout the UK. Whoever said it wasn't easy being green? Liz Gyekye, Editor Follow me on Twitter: @LAWR_editor WE ARE HELPING A DISTRICT COUNCIL TO KEEP A CLOSE WATCH ON ITS OPERATING COSTS Jayne Brown, Depot Administrator, North Kesteven Council. MERRIDALE Fuel Management One Solution > As with all public bodies, operating costs are under close scrutiny. Diesel is an expensive commodity and procedures are required to monitor the usage at the depot. In addition to fuel economy, the data can be used to measure CO2 emissions and vehicle servicing requirements. We are measuring fuel usage far more precisely and that has given us more insight and therefore potential for making savings in the future. The Merridale system is easy to use; information is collected automatically and the emphasis has shifted to the education of our drivers " " FUEL MONITORING SYSTEMS | FUEL PUMPS | FUEL TANKS | TANK GAUGES | MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE call 01902 350700 email sales@merridale.co.uk visit www.merridale.co.uk For other fuel management success stories, visit: www.fuelmanagement.co.uk NEWS June 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 5 FOR MORE NEWS AND ANALYSIS VISIT www.edie.net /waste Norse Commercial Services has taken over the responsibility for run- ning Norfolk's 19 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) around the county. The £5m a year contract comes on top of the recently announced new, ten-year arrangement Norse agreed with seven Norfolk district and city councils, for the recycling of dry materials at its materials recovery facility (MRF) on the outskirts of Norwich, due to commence in October of this year. "This new agreement brings the various facilities and processes around the county together," said Norse Environmental Waste Solutions (NEWS) operations director David Newell. "It is a great example of a joined-up approach that will help keep Norfolk amongst the leading recycling counties in the country, which of course is very good news for local residents and taxpayers." The HWRCs handle a wide range of materials, from household batteries and electrical items to cardboard and brick rubble. Some of the materials go to the Norse MRF and to the company's composting facility at Marsham in Norfolk. Recycling operations in Norfolk are worth around £16m a year to Norse and now provide employment for more than 200 people. Norse takes over Norfolk's HWRCs Wiltshire Council closes all bring-bank sites Wiltshire Council has announced that it has removed all of its 126 recycling bring-bank sites due to lack of public use and to save money. According to the Council, the sites have been underused due to the success of its kerbside recy- cling collection service, through which it recycled 68,000 tonnes of material last year. A total of 36,000 tonnes of this came via black box and blue- lidded household collections of plastic bottles, cardboard, paper, cans, textiles and glass bottles. As a consequence, the Council said that its smaller recycling sites, usually situated in car parks, in the county are now used very little. Less than 3,000 tonnes is expected to be collected through these sites this year. The Council said that the money will be saved by "reduc- ing this service duplication being ploughed back into vital council services". "The kerbside collection of recy- clable waste has been extreme- ly successful," said Wiltshire Council cabinet for waste Tony Sturgis. "We are delighted people are using this service and recycling more of their household waste than ever before. The amount we pay in landfill tax will increase to £80 per tonne this year, so every pound we save by recycling more, is an extra pound we can spend on vital services in Wiltshire." Wiltshire Council is not the only authority in England that has closed its bring bank sites due to a decline in their use. Coder Road amenity skip and recycling centre in Ludlow closed earlier this year in February fol- lowing a detailed review of the site and a public consultation. Officials said the site was under- used and there was a low recycling rate at the centre. Asda supplier opens AD plant • Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has told its householders that the Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRC) in Rawmarsh will be closed from one day a week from June. • Residents near a centre in Milton, Stoke-on-Trent are calling for a recycling collection centre to be closed after it was told to remove excess waste. • Aylesbury District Council removed 80 banks due to lack of public use. • South Derbyshire Council is currently considering removing 73 bring sites due to lack of public use. Other councils that have recently closed or reduced their recycling sites Parrs Wood High School in Manchester has announced that it is now saving over 400 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and recycling 85% of its waste, after implementing waste reduction practices on advice from B&M Waste Services. The company carried out a full waste audit of the school in part- nership with the school's carbon reduction committee – the Student CO2 Committee – and found the school could be doing more to recycle. QV Foods, a potato and vegetable grower that supplies produce to Asda, has hosted the opening of a 1.5 MW anaerobic digestion (AD) facil- ity located at its headquarters and food-processing site in Holbeach, Lincolnshire. Asda president and chief executive Andy Clarke opened the facility as part of a tour of QV Foods' operations. The AD facility is a joint venture between QV Foods' parent com- pany A.H. Worth and AD special- ist Tamar Energy, which built and operates the facility. The facility will take up to 30,000 tonnes of organic material per year, mainly vegetable trimmings and potato wastes from QV Foods opera- tions, and convert this into renew- able energy - enough to supply the site's electricity requirements, with the surplus being exported to the National Grid. As well as delivering power supply resilience and cost savings, the AD facility will pro- duce a nutrient-rich biofertiliser and reduce QV Foods' carbon footprint. according to Tamar Energy.

• Cover