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NEWS The month in recycling READ ALL ABOUT IT – Dennis Eagle has teamed up with publisher Skips Educational The scheme is designed to support Birmingham City Council's waste collection schools across the city, with every 10-year-old receiving a free copy. Dennis the 8 Local Authority Waste & Recycling May 2015 YOUR ROUND-UP OF END-OF-LIFE VEHICLES – Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston, paid a visit to Axion Polymers' ELV recycling facility at Trafford Park last month. Green (middle) – shown around the facility by project engineer Uchenna Onwaumaegbu (right) and lab assistant Simon Davidson (left) – saw the firm's latest kit and found out about the three new apprentices. Infrastructure investment Green banking scandal The Green Investment Bank's (GIB) interventions in the UK waste sector are likely to prove "far from green", according to an analysis by Eunomia. Of the £270m committed to waste projects since 2012, more than 90% involve energy-from-waste facilities. In fact, of the 10 projects funded, seven are wholly or mainly EfW. The remaining three are anaerobic digestion plants. Digging a little deeper, Eunomia's Dominic Hogg found that the projects yield a combined 1.935m tonnes per year of treatment capacity. But of that, just 3% and 12% are for recycling and AD respectively. The remaining 85% is thermal EfW. Writing on the Insomnia blog, Hogg explained: "I don't doubt that the GIB is trying to make the UK greener, but you can only assess whether an EfW project will be environmentally beneficial if you understand what forms of energy it will effectively displace over its lifetime. Unfortunately the GIB has failed to grasp this point, or more specifically, how to estimate what's displaced. As a result, the GIB is investing in projects that will actually hold back progress on carbon emissions," he added. In November 2014 the Commons Environmental Audit Committee recognised concerns about the nature of the projects the GIB is funding and called on the government to ensure that the bank finances innovative technologies to support a circular economy. Incentive schemes £11.1m to encourage recycling The DCLG's controversial fund to incentivise people to recycle has been more than doubled from £5m to £11.1m. The scheme is only open to those operating weekly collection services. The money will be spread across 46 projects in 60 council areas, representing a wide range of methods including partnership working with parishes, schools, and community and faith groups. Some families will receive incentives for bringing materials not recycled at the kerbside to recycling banks. Other notable projects include a scheme across four London boroughs where residents stand the chance of winning a £20,000 cash prize. Local authority Dundee introduces new system Dundee City Council is launching separate collections of food waste and glass as part of its new 'Recycle for Dundee' service. The frequency of residual waste collections will also change from weekly to fortnightly. Around 57,000 households in Dundee had only monthly collections of paper and cardboard, while a further 16,000 residents could recycle all dry recyclables (plastic, paper, card, metal and glass) in a 55L green recycling box. These collections took place along with weekly collections of residual waste and fortnightly/ monthly collections of garden waste (depending on the season). Dundee currently recycles 32% of its waste, but has a target of 60% by 2020 as part of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations. Waste contracts Materials Works contract terminated The Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk has terminated its waste contract The month in recycling READ ALL ABOUT IT – Dennis Eagle has teamed up with publisher Skips Educational The scheme is designed to support Birmingham City Council's waste collection schools across the city, with every 10-year-old receiving a free copy. Dennis the YOUR ROUND-UP OF

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