First ever UK recycling plant to turn used plastic bottles back Into food packaging
March 20, 2007 at 1:35 pm
A £12 million funding agreement was signed on the 5th March which announced the arrival of the first UK plant to recycle plastics back into food packaging. The plant, due to open in December of this year, will be located in Dagenham and operated by Closed Loop London (CLL). The new facilities at Dagenham will ensure that 35,000 tonnes of packaging which would previously have been exported for recycling or sent to landfill will instead be converted into packaging material here in the UK. Millions of water, soft drinks and cosmetics bottles are made of Polyethylene terephtalate, or PET, which will soon be recycled into food packaging at the site at Dagenham.
Managing director of CLL Chris Dow said recently: “The development of this facility is the realisation of a three year vision… We are delighted to be able to bring to the food packaging manufacturers a commercially viable and environmentally responsible option when specifying packaging.” Previously, tonnes of plastics were exported to suitable recycling plants abroad, alternatively they were incinerated or sent to landfill. The new plant marks a huge step forward for recycling in the UK, and has attracted private equity funding from Foresight Venture Partners, a banking facility from Allied Irish Bank (GB), and is also supported by public sector funding from the London Development Agency (LDA) and WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme).
One of the key motivations behind the plant at Dagenham is the improvement of UK recycling facilities in response to mounting concerns about climate change and global warming. This growing sensitivity to climate change and the acknowledged need for more efficient recycling in the UK has spurred individuals to praise the plans for the new facilities. Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, stated that the announcement is “a big leap forward for recycling in the capital and will boost our fight against climate change.” The plans also respond to growing public demand for ‘greener’ waste disposal practises, as Jennie Price, Chief Executive of WRAP points out: “There is a real public demand for plastics recycling, and a strong desire to see that recycling happening close to home.” The new plant at Dagenham seems to indicate a positive attitude shared by both public and private sectors that efficient recycling is a necessity, marking a promising step forward in the battle against climate change.
Marks & Spencer has been the first to commit to sending plastic waste to the plant from its stores in London, and is encouraging suppliers to source the recycled PET for M&S packaging from the site. Stuart Rose, the Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer said recently “We will be able to send our own plastic waste to the plant for recycling and use even more recycled plastic in M&S packaging.” It is hoped that more major retailers will follow the example made by Marks & Spencer in committing their plastic waste to UK recycling.
UK retailers sign agreement to reduce environmental impact of carrier bags by 25% by the end of 2008
March 15, 2007 at 1:24 am
Around 13 billion carrier bags are used by shoppers in the UK every year. Though they are made from around 70% less plastic than they were 20 years ago, most carrier bags are still made of polyethylene, which is non-degradable. This means that as well as using up non-renewable energy in their production, plastic bags can take hundreds of years break down. They can also cause direct damage to wildlife and are one of the worst offenders for spoiling beaches and parks.
Widespread concern surrounding the environmental impact of plastic bags has finally brought the UK retail sector together in a joint effort to tackle the issue. Over 20 retailers, including big names ASDA, Boots, Debenhams, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Primark have signed an agreement with the government and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
The agreement proposes a 25% reduction in the overall environmental impact of carrier bags by the end of 2008. This is to be achieved through three main routes:
1) Reducing the environmental impact of each carrier bag.
2) Encouraging customers to significantly reduce the number of carrier bags they use.
3) Enabling the recycling of more carrier bags where appropriate.
These measures build on existing ‘bag for life’ schemes, which have seen retailers developing and using alternative materials and trialling bigger bags that carry more shopping.
If the 25% reduction target is achieved, carbon dioxide emissions will be cut by up to 58,500 tonnes a year; the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the road for a year.
Though widely accepted as a step in the right direction, other countries have gone even further in the battle against the carrier bag. The Irish Republic has levied a 15 cent (10p) charge on plastic bags since 2002, which is claimed to have reduced usage by 90%. A similar tax has been proposed in Scotland. Australia’s government intends to completely phase out lightweight plastic carrier bags by the end of 2008.
End of life vehicle recycling law now in force
January 17, 2007 at 9:49 am
New EU legislation came into force at the beginning of the year to improve the recycling of old vehicles. The End of Life Vehicles (ELVs) directive (2000/53/EC) applies to cars, vans and some three wheeled vehicles, and means that drivers in the EU can now have their old vehicles disposed of for free. Similar legislation already exists for cars built since 2002, but from the start of January all cars can now be returned to their car maker for free recycling.
At the moment about 2 million vehicles are scrapped each year in the UK, and the ELVs directive means that car manufacturers are now responsible for recycling old vehicles. Previously, vehicle owners had to pay scrap merchants to dispose of their cars which meant that cars were often abandoned to avoid these scrapping costs. Now that old vehicles can be disposed of for free fewer and fewer vehicles are likely to be abandoned on the side of the road.
The aim of the directive is not only to improve the recycling rates of old cars, but also to limit the quantity of hazardous materials used in the manufacture of vehicles. By making car producers responsible for recycling old vehicles it is in their own interest to use and develop materials that can be easily recycled of reused. The hope is that over 80% of every old vehicle in the EU will soon be re-cycled or re-used to meet new recycling targets.
Recycle your Christmas cards
January 17, 2007 at 5:50 am
The decorations have been taken down, the fridge is empty at last, you’ve exchanged your unwanted presents and hopefully taken all those empty bottles to the bottle bank. But what do you do with all those Christmas cards? Surely all that pretty, but short lived paper and card doesn’t have to completely go to waste.
With over 1 billion cards sent, read and enjoyed over the festive period in the UK it is important that once taken off the walls and mantlepeice they are not just thrown away with the household rubbish. Schemes like the Woodland Trust’s have been set up so that all this excess paper and card can be put to good use. You can take your Christmas cards to any mainland WHSmith store, TESCO supermarket (including selected Express stores) and TK Maxx stores, pop them in the bins provided and the cards will then be collected and taken paper mills where they are recycled into new paper products. The scheme runs from 2nd to 31st January
This is easy enough for individuals to do whilst out doing the shopping and if you would like to drop off cards from a school or a business, just call the store before to ensure that they can manage a bulk delivery.
So start 2007 as you mean to go on, recycle those unwanted Christmas cards and continue your recycling resolution throughout the year
WEEE – the new EU recycling law and what it means
January 11, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Another EU recycling law came into force in January 2007, this time allowing consumers to recycle all their old electronic and electrical equipment for free. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE ) law was adopted by the UK on 1 January, and will become fully effective in July 2007. The WEEE ensures that consumers can return all their old electrical equipment to the manufacturer who is responsible for recycling or reusing it in an environmental friendly way.
The WEEE directive was initially agreed by European countries in 2003, and up until now it had been adopted by all EU states apart from the UK and Malta. The WEEE was originally intended to be adopted by the UK in August 2005, but its introduction was delayed several times by the Department of Trade and Industry.
WEEE could mean that the cost of electrical goods increases as manufactures try to reclaim the price of recycling from the consumer. Research by the Analyst group Gartner suggests that the average cost of a PC could increase by around €60 or £33 (see www.news.cnet.co.uk). However, recycling should be seen as a last resort as electrical goods, such as old PCs, can be reused by charities, schools and in the developing world.
Full adoption of the WEEE is becoming increasing important because electrical waste is now the fastest growing type of rubbish within the EU. Consumption of electrical goods is greater than ever as people try to keep up to date with the latest technological developments, and discarded electronic goods are having an enormous and potentially devastating impact on the environment.
The WEEE and the problem of electronic waste has been creatively captured in a 7 metre high sculpture situated on London’s South Bank. The aptly named WEEE man is built from 3.3 tonnes of electrical goods, the average amount of electrical goods used by an individual during their lifetime.
More biodegradable packaging introduced
September 21, 2006 at 4:28 am
Sainsbury’s is the latest firm to offer biodegradable packaging to its customers: 500 of its products will now be available in compostable packaging. Around 50 per cent of household waste is from purchases made at convenience stores and supermarkets, and 25 per cent of all rubbish put out by households is retail packaging – it’s time for
companies to follow Sainsbury’s lead and take action.
Sainsbury’s announcement follows the move to go greener by other retail companies – this month Ikea announced it would be offering biodegradable shopping bags, and Tesco has just introduced a reward system for re-using carrier bags. Tesco customers are able to collect extra clubcard points by bringing old bags back into the store.
Sainsbury’s is unusual in its decision however; and environmental activist organisation Friends of the Earth are calling for other firms to follow suit with the introduction of biodegradable product packaging. But it must be noted that Sainsbury’s may look deceivingly green– these are just 500 product lines out of the 40 000 sold in shops.
Friends of the Earth are calling for further government action on biodegradable packaging. A spokesperson said: “The Government must ensure that the goods that companies produce are either re-usable, recyclable or compostable. But instead the Government is intent on building more unnecessary, unpopular and polluting incinerators that rely on burning non-recyclable waste.”
But Defra, the Government Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture says: “We are currently trying to assess the most environmentally-sound approach to addressing the problem of plastic bag usage. A number of options have been considered, including the possibility of a tax on plastic bags and the potential of biodegradable bags. However for the time being Defra is focusing on encouraging the reuse and recycling of plastic bags as the most viable means of tackling the issue.”
Sainsbury’s decision to produce biodegradable packaging is a step in the right direction, but more companies will need to copy their initiative – and on a bigger scale – for it to have any real impact for the environment.
What do you think? Would you choose to buy a product if its packaging was biodegradable?
Are refuse collection charges and penalties the answer to better recycling?
September 6, 2006 at 9:14 am
Councils nationwide are under pressure to meet tough recycling targets – yet just 18% of UK waste is recycled, missing the government’s goal to stop a third of our rubbish going to landfill by 2015. In order to meet their quota, councils are cracking down on householders to comply with recycling measures. Penalty systems to punish those who fail to meet recycling measures have been introduced. South Norfolk Council is just one example – they have introduced a ‘red-card’ system whereby residents are reprimanded for mis-sorting their rubbish.
However, householders are reacting by complaining that schemes are too complicated and illogical. For example, in Norfolk four different councils operate four different schemes for residents around Norwich. Each system has a slightly different requirement: some recycle plastic, others don’t; some will refuse to take glass, others will. In addition the colours of the bins vary – whereas Broadland District Council supplies a grey bin for recycling, Great Yarmouth Borough Council provides a green bin.
Councils are at a loss as how to enforce recycling if rules are ignored. In a recent Daily Mail article (August 21) it was reported that outraged householders tipped their refuse in the street in protest at their local recycling system and in the only case to go to court so far, Donna Challice, a householder in Exeter, was acquitted in July for ‘contaminating’ her bin. Yet, according to The Environment Agency, nine out of ten people would recycle more if it were made easier.
It has been suggested that charging residents for refuse collection is the answer. In early August, Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw suggested the UK should consider a ‘polluter pays’ policy. And last week (August 27), a new report from a UK think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), recommended the trialling of ‘microchips’ in bins – to monitor the weight of rubbish.
Waste charge has been successfully employed elsewhere. In January 2005, Dublin City Council introduced a new pay by use and volume system for household waste collection services. Householders pay up to 340 Euros a year to have their wheelie bin taken out every week. In a scheme similar to the Irish plastic bag tax, householders are given financial incentive to aid recycling.
However, the implementation of such a system could prove expensive and will take time to be passed by government. It is certainly no short-term solution. But Britain has to match up to the standards set in the EU – householders in Germany, Holland and Austria recycle at least half their waste. If the general public continue to refuse to comply with the schemes of local councils, penalties might be the only solution.
What do you think? Is it time to give the red-card to lazy recyclers?
Tesco Ads Result in Re-using Plastic Bags
August 22, 2006 at 5:01 am
Tesco has announced that its recent celebrity television advertisements aimed at reducing plastic bag consumption have been an unmitigated success. The adverts first aired on the 15th August, and urge shoppers to re-use old bags or to buy a ‘bag for life’. After only three days, Tesco claimed that shoppers had used one million bags less than they would normally expect.
For a while now the supermarket giant has been making a big effort to go green, but have met with criticism. In January 2004 Tesco introduced biodegradable carrier bags. These bags begin to degrade after two months, and after a year and a half, should have totally decomposed.
However, concerns were raised by recycling companies who claimed that if bags that had already begun to degrade entered their recycling process, the quality of recycled plastic would be compromised. The Liberal Democrats also questioned the overall effectiveness of this initiative, saying that the biodegradable bags would give off harmful greenhouse gases while they broke down.
A national campaign led last year by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) that pressured shoppers to re-use plastic bags, has also recently revealed very limited success.
With 17.5 billion new plastic bags being used every year by UK supermarket shoppers, a successful result is well overdue. For more information on how to make your trip to the supermarket more eco-friendly, see our page on how to Reduce, Re-use and Recycle.
Don’t Bin It – Swap It
July 24, 2006 at 6:01 am
Are you the sort of person who hoards old CDs and DVDs that you might never watch again? Is your bookcase overflowing with books that you have only read once but can’t bear to throw out? Have you got an item which you are sure might be a collectable but don’t collect yourself? Or maybe you just have a hefty piece of furniture that you need to get rid off but don’t have the facility to move it.
Well, a useful collection of websites have sprung up which could be the answer to all the above problems. They come in the form of online swap shops and are a great way to connect people who are looking for or getting rid of certain items and an even better way to reduce the amount of waste we throw out.
Readitswapit.co.uk is the place to go if you are a bookworm who ploughs through loads of books but don’t have the heart to throw all those well thumbed paperbacks into the bin. Why not pass stories you have enjoyed onto other avid readers?
The site was started by a commuter who read a lot and his computer whiz friend and has quickly developed into a large network of readers swapping all types of books – 49842 books available to swap today! Its free to use, you just have to pay the postage to send your books.
If CDs, DVDs and video games is more your thing, then www.swopex.com is worth a browse. Swopex has been set up as an ‘entertainment trading community’ where people can swap CDs, DVDs and games they no longer want. When you send in an item you receive credits for it which you can then spend on other items listed on the site. It’s free to use once registered, you have to pay for postage and there is the opportunity to buy items if you prefer with a small fee charged for withdrawing credits.
For a more general range of items to swap, then check out iswap.co.uk
which is a swap shop for absolutely everything. It’s also free to use once you have registered. You can post anything from a car or motorbike to a musical intsrument or an item of clothing. You list your item and wait to see what people are willing to swap in return for it, or simply browse all the items listed and if you see something you would like, you can offer something of yours for it and hope you are successful.
Another two services which are great for getting rid of junk you no longer want or finding something for free that you really do need are ww.freecycle.org and www.free2collect.co.uk. The first was set up in 2003 in the USA to promote waste reduction and works on the philosophy that ‘one person’s trash is another’s treasure’. It now has groups set up Worldwide and works by people offering or requesting items within their local freecycle community. You have to register for your local group and in some groups the first email you send has to be offering an item. After this you can send emails for items you want and the rest of the group will receive your email and respond if they can help.
Free2collect is simpler to use as you can quickly list anything on the site that you are trying to get rid of which people can then browse and send an email if they are interested. It’s a great way of shifting furniture that you can’t manage to move yourself as the understanding is usually that the person will collect from you at a convenient time.
All of these sites are a great contributor to reducing waste and prove that although it may be rubbish to you, it might just be exactly what someone else is looking for or needs. These swap shop type sites are also a great way of bringing communities of like minded people together and linking up collectors with collectables. So next time you think of throwing out your junk with the rubbish, check out the demand for your item online first.
Recycling Push during World Cup
June 19, 2006 at 7:02 am
The World Cup will bring welcome profits for retailers with food and drink for match parties and BBQs and shiny new TV sets to enjoy the games on but this unfortunately brings with it an increase in rubbish. On the plus side though, most of this rubbish can be recycled and even Sven himself is encouraging fans to recycle those cans and bottles and extra packaging.
Research shows that during the World Cup:
– England fans will open 340 million cans and bottles (25% more than an average month)
– Scottish and Welsh fans will open another 70 million
– Hot weather could see another 740 million cans of soft drinks sold
– 180 million papers and newspapers covering and commenting on the events will be sold
– An increase in cardboard packaging will increase.
Local councils, football clubs, shops and community groups are all planning events to get the recycling message across during the World Cup and the England Football manager launched a campaign at the beginning of the month with Environment Secretary David Miliband which urged fans to recycle as much as possible. At the launch of the Big Recycle campaign, Ericksson asked that everyone helped to make this ‘World Cup a winner for the team and environment by recycling all their extra cans, bottles and newspapers”.
So make sure you recycle as much as you can whilst enjoying the football at home.
