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NEWS December 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 5 FOR MORE NEWS AND ANALYSIS VISIT www.edie.net /waste Waste management firm Sterecycle has been fined £500,000 after being found guilty of corporate manslaughter following the death of an employee. The Rotherham-based firm is currently in liquidation. Michael Whinfrey, 42, died at Sterecycle's Rotherham plant following an explosion in January 2011. He suffered fatal head injuries after the door of an autoclave machine he was operating blew out under pressure. A colleague of Whinfrey suffered "serious life- changing injuries" as a result of the explosion. A joint investigation, conducted by South Yorkshire Police and the Health and Safety Executive, found that the explosion resulted from the failure of a screw connection to the autoclave locking ring, which secured the door to the machine. South Yorkshire Police said the force of the explosion blew a hole in the factory wall. Detective Sergeant Rob Platts, who lead the investigation, said that he was "pleased with the verdict" and said that it "recognises the systemic failings of a company who had a duty of care to its employees". Kevin Goss, 57, a former maintenance manager at Sterecycle, was cleared at Sheffield Crown Court of perverting the course of justice. Charges against two other men under Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act were withdrawn during the trial. Sterecycle found guilty of corporate manslaughter Cambridgeshire moots waste merger plan Plans to move to a shared waste ser- vice with a single management team for Cambridge City Council and the surrounding South Cambridgeshire District Council villages are under consultation. The idea of merging the waste ser- vices was first mooted in July. A joint report, recently published, which out- lines the plan, has stated that both councils' waste and recycling teams would be overseen by a single man- agement and support structure, with further savings also coming from restructuring bin collection rounds across the district and city border. Redesigning waste collection rounds to ignore local authority boundaries will also help the councils respond to housing growth across the area. As part of the plans, Cambridge City Council's team would relocate to South Cambridgeshire District Council's depot in Waterbeach. Under the proposed plans, the depot would become a single shared waste service, wholly owned and run by the local authorities. They will also use a single pool for vehicles. The move comes as councils look for ways to save money, after the reduction in government grants. The predicted savings of the new scheme will be spread equally between the districts. According to the report annual savings of around £350,000 could be achieved in the next 12 months, increasing to around £700,000 within three years. Peter Roberts, executive councillor for environment, Waste and Public Health at Cambridge City Council, said: "A good-quality waste collec- tion and recycling service for the city is so important and by joining forces with South Cambridgeshire District Council we can maintain and improve our service whilst achieving signifi- cant savings that are necessary given that we have less money overall." Councillor Mick Martin, South Cambridgeshire District Council's cabinet member for environmental services, added: "Reductions to the funding we receive from government, twinned with a growing population, means we have to continue to find ways to do more for less. "The growth on the border of our area with Cambridge City means working closer together makes perfect sense; by being smarter with the way we set up our rounds we will deliver better value for money for council taxpayers." WRAP unveils plans for Courtauld 2025 L-R: Zero Waste Scotland director Iain Gulland and Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead announce plans for a Scottish Institute for Remanufacture and development of Scottish Materials Brokerage Service. WRAP has been having discussions with governments and industry stakeholders about a new frame- work for collaborative action in the UK to follow Courtauld 3. This is proposed to be a new ten-year framework (2016-2025), for collaborative action across the food and drink life-cycle in the UK, helping businesses to become more resilient to future changes in supply and demand. The agreement is called 'Courtauld 2025', but will dif- fer significantly from the previous and existing Courtauld agreements by taking a whole system view to address other areas of resource effi- ciency for the first time. Courtauld 2025 is still being developed and currently no targets have been identified. However, future targets will look at carbon, water and waste reduction spanning the whole food supply chain. Cambridgeshire could save around £700,000 within three years Councillors in South Cambridgeshire have unanimously backed a move to share waste services with neighbouring councils after discussing plans to cut costs by 15% within three years.

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