30 June, 2015
The local council should take on a share of the risk of selling on recyclable materials, rather than leaving it entirely to their waste contractors. As it stands, local authorities expect that their waste contractors to handle all the risks that are involved in selling recyclable materials, which leaves the companies exposed in the current market.
Some local authorities believe that this approach has some advantages of leaving the collecting and selling of the recyclable materials to the contractor. Councils are fully aware of this issue, but are wary about changing the way the contracts are currently handed out.
The local authorities would have entered into the waste collection contracts due to the fact that they will receive a fixed price for the recyclables collected. Which is used to offset collection costs, the risk involved in selling the materials is shouldered by the waste contractors. But, in recent years, the volatile price of commodities has seen contractors claiming they have lost out from this arrangement and in some cases contracts have even collapsed.
Reports say that the situation is ‘unsustainable’ and the Waste Collection sector and some of its members are calling for councils to share in the risk as well as the reward, also for this to be kept separate from the pricing for waste collection.
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25 June, 2015
The UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is responsible for the UK’s policy and regulations on environmental, food and rural issues. At a recent event entitled “Resourcing the Future Conference 2015”, Rory Stewart, the DEFRA secretary made a very strong statement about the UK and Recycling.
Rory Stewart stated, “We really want to make the United Kingdom the very best country in the world for recycling. I’d like people in 20 years’ time, sitting around in grisly conferences in Australia or Austria or Canada, to say if you want to look at a country that is really leading the world, you should look at the United Kingdom.”
The European Union (EU) has been promoting Circular Economy and how we can make it work, Mr Stewart showed his support for this project and said he has great ambitions to make it work. In fact, DEFRA is working very hard to take the European Commission’s proposal and make them even more ambitious for the UK.
Waste Crime & Waste Management
My Stewart took the opportunity to talk about waste crime and how we as a nation need to deal with this growing problem. He also warned that we need to ensure resources are managed well and on the benefits that good waste management practices can bring to society.
Waste Sector is doing well
It was a breath of fresh hear to hear someone praising the waste sector, Rory Stewart said, “Over the last two decades has been due to your determination and your leadership all of you, not just people in the suits in this room but 100,000 nearly people across the United Kingdom …. All of you from the street level right the way through to the fanciest bits of technology are making the United Kingdom a real global leader in this field.”
You can see video highlights of Rory Stewarts peach here: http://bcove.me/fxz0ljvo
16 June, 2015
London is a growing city where there is always demolition occurring with new buildings being built, but where there’s new builds there’s also demolition. But, are London demolition companies implementing recycling practises? Are the construction and demolition sectors really recycling properly?
The UK Green Building Council says that it is with the number of new buildings being built it is no surprise that the construction and demolition sectors are coming under increasing pressure to reuse materials.
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9 June, 2015
There is a huge concern over supermarkets throwing away or destroying unsold food in the UK. We need to take lead from the French in this case. In France supermarkets will be banned from throwing away or destroying any unsold food in an attempt to stop them from wasting food. They must donate it to charities or feed it to animals which falls under the law that will tackle on food waste.
A unanimous vote by the French national assembly voted to pass the legislation as France battles an epidemic of wasted food.
One of the MPs from the parliament said “there’s an absolute urgency – charities are desperate for food. The most moving part of this this law is that it opens us up to others who are suffering.” With this bill, supermarkets will be barred to deliberately spoil unsold food and given to charities.
By next year July all supermarkets with a footprint of 4,305 square foot or more will have to sign a contract with charities, if they fail to do so they will face penalties which includes fines of up to €75,000 or two years in jail.
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3 June, 2015
London’s becoming more popular and recycling is becoming more of an issue. It is expected that London will have over 18 million visitors in 2015, winning it the accolade of the most popular city on the planet.
On the plus side the capital’s stock will rise as it is predicted that tourist will be spending roughly around 13 million over the course of the year. This adds a strain on the city’s infrastructure as recycling has just become more of an issue. London is terrible at recycling and landfills are being over used which damages London’s green credentials.
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