The engineering firm has partnered with the Scottish-based recycling experts to design and manufacture their own brand of glass crushing compacting units for use in “hospitality” trade businesses like restaurants, bars, clubs and other licenced traders.

The company in question, Ekko Glass Crush and Collect informs the Waster that they been piloting the unit with 100 customers that sell consumer glass in large quantities including Network Rail and FTSE 250 bar and restaurant chain, Mitchells and Butlers.

The built-to-last space saving units are reportedly smaller than a wheelie bin and reduce glass waste volume by 80% resulting in much smaller storage space requirements between collections.

Tharsus chief executive Brian Palmer said: “Ekko Glass Crush and Collect has an excellent business model, which supports the growing need for economically viable methods of recycling waste”.

“Working closely with the team at Ekko, we were asked to redesign the product to optimise [it] throughout and satisfy international safety standards, while still meeting their commercial and technical specifications.”

Tharsus apparently completely changed the human interface, to make the glass crushing action safer for users, completely removing the possibility of them coming into contact with glass shards and enhanced the ergonomics and aesthetics by adding a practical curved top to the machine.

Glass Crushing Units Designed for Safety

He continued: “In order to protect the operator we have redesigned the unit so that once the bottle is placed into the chute, the opening is closed off before the machine can crush the glass.”

When it is available by the end of this year, the new unit will make recycling more time and cost efficient, crushing all glass in one unit and reducing overall waste disposal costs for businesses.

Brian Williamson, director of Ekko Glass Crush and Collect said: “One of the main hurdles to glass being recovered from the hospitality sector is the lack of storage space available at the properties. It is presumed by the Waster that once the available space for glass waste storage is used, without crushing facilities the businesses would need to call in their glass collection service much more frequently, raising recycling costs.

Glass Crushing Units Behind the Bar

The company has stated that; “There is an increasing trend for ‘behind-the-bar’ in house compactors to be used to compact glass before collection which reduces the amount of space required to store the empty bottles and the frequency of collections required”.

Developments of this sort clearly allow glass to be collected much more sustainably, in larger tonnages per vehicle mile, and are very much to be encouraged. The engineering company in this instance has not mentioned the mixing of different glass colours which tends to make the cullet of lower value, but as currently the Waster understands that most UK glass cullet, whether colour separated or not, is being used as road sub-base aggregate etc., this hardly matters.

Other packaging materials suppliers should take note. Plastic containers and film, could surely be similarly densified/ compacted by these businesses, rendering recycling of these materials also much more viable for recycling by the hospitality trade?

For more information about glass crushing Tharsus and Ekko Glass Collect click here!

“Pay as you throw” charges for household waste have been ruled out by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

Plans to let English councils pilot schemes which would charge or reward people according to the waste thrown out had been drawn up by Labour.

But councils shunned the trials, aimed at cutting landfill, and Mr Pickles said the government backed rewarding people for recycling instead.

Labour said it should be up to councils to choose how to collect waste.

The UK must reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by nearly two-thirds by 2020 to meet EU targets.
‘Bin tax’

Government says No! To bin tax.

Powers to allow five councils in England to trial the scheme from April 2009 were included in the Climate Change Act – but none applied, saying they had not been told how it would operate.

Critics said the “bin tax” idea could encourage fly-tipping and prompt people to burn rubbish at home.

You should treat people with respect instead of having a bunch of bin inspectors

Eric Pickles Communities Secretary

Mr Pickles has effectively ruled out a charging scheme, instead backing a recycling reward scheme pioneered by Windsor and Maidenhead council in Berkshire.

Households in the borough – which Mr Pickles visited on Monday to draw attention to the scheme – are being awarded points for the amount they recycle, which can be redeemed at shops, restaurants and leisure centres, or donated to schools.

Mr Pickles said the scheme had increased recycling by 35% and an incentive-based approach was more effective than taxes or fines in reducing the amount of rubbish sent to landfill sites.

“You should treat people with respect instead of having a bunch of bin inspectors, bin police,” Mr Pickles told BBC Radio 4′s The World at One.

Incentivising people was the quickest way to increase recycling levels, which he said would be badly needed if the UK was to meet its target of becoming “one of the green economies of Europe”.

“It does not put the costs up,” he added. “Actually what it does is it increases the recycling rate and puts money into the local economy.”

Windsor and Maidenhead council is inviting more than 60,000 households to join its RecycleBank service from Monday.

Councillor Liam Maxwell said: “Paying the public to recycle works. It increases recycling rates, reduces our environmental impact, reduces council tax and helps local businesses.

More at BBC News.

Between 1.1 and 1.75 million tonnes of plasterboard enters the waste stream each year in the UK, which is not only a waste of resources but also, potentially, an environmental problem.

Scotland’s environment watchdog is hoping to encourage more businesses to increase the amount they are recycling, by confirming that waste plasterboard which has been processed to the correct specification, is no longer classified as waste.

If gypsum comes into contact with biodegradable waste in landfill, toxic and smelly hydrogen sulphide gas is produced. However, if producers separate it for recovery and recycling, it can then be used to replace virgin gypsum in the plasterboard, cement and soil conditioner markets.

To promote the market for quality gypsum recycling, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has taken the position that where waste plasterboard is processed in accordance with BSI PAS109:2008, it will no longer be regarded as waste.

The recently published BSI PAS 109:2008 “Specification for the production of recycled gypsum from waste plasterboard” specifies minimum requirements for the recycling process itself. It covers the selection, receipt, handling of inputs, specification of product grades and the storage, labeling, dispatch and traceability of the products that are produced from that process.

BSI PAS 109:2008 compliant gypsum which has been recycled to the correct specification and is to be used for plasterboard manufacture, cement manufacture and as soil conditioner, will no longer be regarded as waste by SEPA. This means the subsequent storage, movement and use will not be subject to the requirements of waste legislation, meaning it does not need to be transported by a registered waste carrier or accompanied by a controlled waste transfer note.

Kenny Boag, SEPA’s Head of Waste Policy, said:

“SEPA supports the responsible processing of waste materials into high quality products as part of achieving a Zero waste society. SEPA’s policies on the disposal and recovery of gypsum from plasterboard will reduce pollution from landfilling and will also facilitate the recycling of this valuable resource.”

Iain Gulland, Director of Zero Waste Scotland, said:

“We are delighted that SEPA has adopted the BSI PAS 109:2008. Scotland has a vibrant building industry and SEPA is sending strong signal to industry that it takes the issue of construction waste very seriously.”

To take advantage of this position the local SEPA team must be contacted and a demonstration of compliance with PAS109 must be provided. BSI PAS 109:2008 covers the selection, receipt, handling of inputs, specification of product grades and the storage, labelling, dispatch and traceability of the products that are produced from that process.

Processors and users are not obliged to comply with these terms, but reprocessed gypsum that is not BSI PAS 109:2008 compliant will remain classified as waste.

The full position is available under the category “regulatory guidance” – click here.

EDMONTON – Apartment and condo dwellers in parts of Edmonton will soon be serenaded by their recycling bins.

Motion sensors are being installed in 400 blue bins citywide. When the lids on the bins are opened, the sensors will trigger sound devices to play one of two 30-second blues tunes.

It’s part of a $160,000 “blue bin blues” campaign to get Edmontonians to stop dumping inappropriate items in the bins while also encouraging people to recycle more.

“When you go to recycle, you may hear your blue bin singing to you,” said Connie Boyce, the city’s director of community relations.

Typical items inappropriately dumped into blue bins include garden hoses, wires and Christmas lights, she said.

Boyce said the items get wrapped around machinery at the sorting facility, which can cause the whole plant to be temporarily shut down.

Paints, motor oils, butcher knives, needles and even guns have been found in blue bins, she said, posing a danger to the workers who must sort through the contents of the bins.

Boyce said the one-of-a-kind promotion was devised after the number of building dwellers who recycle recently dropped to 80% from 90%.

She said she’s not aware of any other city that has singing recycling bins.

Boyce acknowledged it’s possible some of the singing units may be stolen and some may not work at all times.

“But we’ve got a few hundred out there, so some people will definitely be surprised when they go out there to recycle.”

Motion sensors are expected to be installed in the bins by the end of the week. Each one costs the city about $10.

The campaign runs until the end of June.

There are about 1,600 blue bins at apartment, condo and townhouse complexes throughout Edmonton.

The tunes are sung by local musician Hank Leonhardt. More here.

Here is our Waste Separation Technology list:

1. Screeners are sifting units that are rotated as powder is fed into their interior.
2. Air classifiers, cones or cyclones use the spiral air flow action or acceleration within a chamber to separate or classify solid particles
3. Concentrating tables or density separators screen bulk materials or minerals based on the density (specific gravity), size and shape of the particles.
4. Electrostatic separators use preferential ionization or charging of particles to separate conductors from dielectrics (non conductors).
5. Floatation systems separate hydrophobic particulates from hydrophilic particulates by passing fine air bubbles up through a solid- liquid mixture. The fine bubbles attach to and lift or float the hydrophobic particles up where they are collected.
6. Magnetic separators use powerful magnetic fields to separate iron, steel, ferrosilicon or other ferromagnetic materials from non-magnetic bulk materials. The magnetic field may be generated by permanent magnets or electromagnets.
7. Rake, spiral and bowl classifiers use mechanical action to dewater, deslime or separate coarse bulk materials from finer materials or liquids.
8. Trommels are large rotary drums shaped with a grate-like surface with large openings to separate very coarse materials from bulk materials, e.g. coarse plastics from fine aluminium.
9. Water classifiers such as elutriators and classifying hydrocyclones use settling or flow in water or a liquid to separate or classify powdered materials based on particle size or shape.

This type of equipment is normally found in Labs and in Industrial use – in wheelie bins.

Waste Matchers – the re-use project – has announced a new service called the SMILE Network.

The SMILE Network encourages collaboration between businesses through networking events in order to save costs and help the environment.

At these events, businesses can offer items such as surplus products, byproducts, reusable items, office/warehouse space or logistics and acquire similar items from other businesses. All items offered will be either free of charge or below market value.

The first event will take place on 25th March 2010 at the Oriel House Hotel, Ballincollig, Co. Cork (9.00-14.00).

Funded by South Cork Enterprise Board, this event is free of charge and open to business from the majority of sectors.

For more information – including event Programme and Booking Form – Waste Matchers

Their plans for assistance in “Helping businesses use resources more efficiently and divert more waste from landfill”, was unveiled last week as one of the top targets for the Environment Agency over the next five years.

Launched on day two of the Agency’s annual conference, the new corporate strategy Creating A Better Place 2010-2015 also outlines the key waste-related challenges that are facing businesses and communities over the next five years and what needs to be done to meet those challenges including:

Hazardous waste:

* Overview: There has been a step change in the management of hazardous waste since the banning of co-disposal and mixing pits. Government has also consulted on a proposed Strategy for Hazardous Waste Management in England – a move that will lead to further improvements in hazardous waste treatment.
* What next? Hazardous waste poses particular risks to the environment and health so it is especially important that it is managed properly. Hazardous waste needs to be designed out at source, reduced and recycled wherever possible and residues managed safety.

Biodegradable waste:

* Overview: More than 100 million tonnes of bio-waste is produced in the UK every year. Much of this is recycled by spreading on to land.
* What next? Biowaste sent to landfill generates methane which is 20 times more potent than CO2. As well as needing to reduce biowaste production we want more of this valuable resource to be turned into energy and soil conditioners through greater uptake of anaerobic digestion.

Waste Crime:

* Overview: Hefty fines and tough sentences have been handed out to waste criminals in 454 prosecutions over the past year as a result of the Environment Agency’s crackdown on waste crime.
* What next? Waste crime is unacceptable. It puts our environment and our health at risk and undercuts legitimate businesses. We want to see businesses taking much more responsibility for the safe and lawful management of their waste – and the courts still need to make sure crime does not pay.

Head of Waste and Resources Liz Parkes said: “Last year the total environmental costs of waste sent to landfill and incinerators in the UK rather than being recycled were £336million.

“But the latest estimates are that UK companies could save in the region of £6.4 billion a year by using resources more efficiently. Collaborative work by the Environment Agency and WRAP to set new quality standards for waste recovery could result in 17 million tonnes of waste being diverted and over 2 million tonnes of carbon and 14 million tonnes of raw materials being saved.

“Good progress is being made towards municipal waste and packaging recovery targets. Regulated companies have also reduced the amount of waste they produce by 14% since 2005. But more can be done.

“The bottom line is population growth and consumption patterns are placing an unsustainable burden on the planet’s resources. Add climate change to the mix and we have no choice. Businesses must treat waste a valuable resource. In turn, we are working to make it easier for businesses to do the right thing and taking tough action against those who flout the law.”

Full article at The Environment Agency web site.

Interestingly, we already know that the nation does not intend to go the easiest route toward maximised reduction of Biological Municipal Waste (BMW) sent to landfill by building lots of incinerators. In fact it has limited the proportion of incineration treatment facilities to prevent very many of those being built.

The nation has already seen sweet success in its waste diversion policy, and most importantly, met the current landfill diversion target 18 months early, to the delight of the politicians. Now, it must start driving towards its zero waste target, and must put a wide range of measures in place which must deliver, in a very short space of time.

The targets laid out in the draft plan include 70 percent recycling by 2025, no more than 25 percent of municipal waste going to energy from waste facilities and no more than five percent of waste being landfilled by 2025.

This is truly very challenging, and isn’t going to happen unless every sector of the waste industry and the waste producers get together and al pull together. They must help each other and innovate as they go if the ideal is to become reality.

Zero waste is not new as a concept and has for sure been the goal for Scotland for some years now. The recent launch of the draft Zero Waste Plan serves only to reinforce Scotland’s determination to achieve that ultimate target.

Zero waste does not, we stress, mean the elimination of all waste, but rather the elimination of waste from the unnecessary use of materials, and will include waste prevention, re-use, recycling and sustainable design, to name but a few of the methods in the toolbox.

So far, things are looking good. However, the reports available suggest that in terms of the 40 percent target set for 2010, Scotland was at 34 percent as of March of this year. There is therefore a significant amount to do to make the 2010 and they appreciate that it will be challenging, but it is seen as achievable.

Going onward beyond 2010, the new plan looks beyond municipal waste and turns to those in other sectors. All of them can make a difference.

Since September the Scottish government has been seeking the views of the waste industry through a consultation process on their draft Zero Waste Plan. The consultation publicity makes it clear that the Scottish government wants ideas on how different sectors and waste streams, food waste being a prime example, can have an impact.

With some very hard to meet targets ahead and with a need to look beyond the immediate and obvious sectors and waste streams, finding the ways and means to generate the discussion and new ideas needed is imperative.

So, can it all actually happen? If one looks back 10 years one would have thought such improvements in waste diversion in so short a period would be completely unattainable.

However, there is strong public support for this policy and a Grass Roots willingness to recycle which has been surprisingly strong and growing even more so. Buoyed up by this waste strategies have been getting braver and more ambitious.

Scotland certainly has a lot to talk about during this consultation period, but it is a relatively small country so communication routes are smaller than in larger nations and there may be a greater flexibility not available within governance of larger nations. Scotland will, be followed by England to Zero Waste (with Wales no doubt following a similar track) it has recently been announced by the Labour Government.

As a trail-blazer on this road, Scotland has a lot to give the rest of us too when we follow them later on the same path. But the warning is out that every sector must get involved and needs to do its bit and enable the nation to embark on the journey to zero waste together as one.

Every sector needs to come up with ideas and only they possess the detailed knowledge to make this work. It all comes down to the fact that; it’s not about chasing just one route, it’s about making a difference together – there is no ‘magic bullet’.

Certainly, what the Government has to do, however, is to deliver at pace and to do that it is looking for the solutions that will make the biggest difference in the next four to five years. There are almost “millions” of things that can be done to help by the government and the waste companies throughout the industry. However, only a few will be successful enough to make big differences, so the idea is for the waste professionals to identify the solutions that will make the biggest difference, and make it quickly, and for the government to back those.

Scotland is geared for Zero Waste success, so let us all make it happen!

Ever since the Waste Strategy Unit’s final report, “Waste not, want not” was published on 27 November 2002, the UK has been increasing recycling rates and working towards truly significant targets which will substantially reduce the tonnages of waste to landfill. Landfills which were filling at an ever increasing rate were threatening to cover the land and rise above it, eventually filling every quarry and patch of waste land in our urban areas and then eating up huge tracts of farm land as well.

During 2002, the long-standing theoretical acceptance that continuing dependence on landfill for more than 80% of all our wastes was unsustainable finally began to be echoed in a coherent strategy and alongside the good words ‘fiscal incentives’ and ‘penalties’ were brought in which began, in time, to have some effect. These have included the annually increasing landfill tax (now Active waste – £46 (or £40/tonne (+VAT) at June 2009), and starting in 2007 the requirement that all waste be pre-treated in some way before it could be accepted at any landfill.

Watch the Official Bywaters Video about this plant:

In the background, the Environment Agency has also been tightening the environmental protection standards required of the landfill operators which has simultaneously increased their costs which have been passed on to the landfill users. This means that the landfills now accepting the pre-treated residual wastes after recycling, while still far from perfect, are much better able to contain their waste burden without producing the environmental emissions and bad-neighbour nuisances of the past.

Over the same period public willingness to recycle in their homes has also risen encouraged by separate waste collections which have progressively been introduced by local authorities and which have extended the quantity and range of source separated and comingled Municipal Solid Waste diverted away from landfill.

Throughout that period there have been many doubters and those running good businesses in the recycling industry continued to battle against a background of volatile and uncertain recyclate materials markets to win disposal contracts and remain commercially viable must have often wondered why they were doing it. The best of these businesses have somehow survived, winning recycling contracts commercially while at risk from highly volatile recycled material prices, and competing against the much lower cost option of disposal to landfill.

At some point it was all going to make both environmental AND commercial sense to recycle, but many worried whether the industry ever quite get there before the political will to do so was lost.

For a long while the industry pundits have talked of the need to reach a theoretical “tipping point” at which as the landfill tax elevator rises, and the combination of many other smaller regulatory effects come together, and how they will push the cost of landfilling above the cost of recycling. This point appears to have now been reached or is very close. The rate of landfill tax for landfill disposal active waste has increased by £8/tonne per annum from 1st April 2008 and will continue to increase by £8/tonne on 1st April each year to 2013.

The UK government funded WRAP organisation which researches and promotes recycling waste diversion has published rates for current waste treatment technologies generally within the range of £45 to £65/tonne, so it would appear that UK landfill charges are now just reaching the tipping point.

That all this was finally adding up to profitable cost competitive recycling is being confirmed by the leading waste recycling companies in the commercial and industrial waste sector. Finally, this year (with the additional cost of landfill from 1 April), the market for commercial and industrial recycling which was previously lagging behind the municipal waste recycling scene is catching up. Maybe, it may soon even overtake the recycling rates achieved in municipal/household recycling?

All this adds up to a great opportunity for a family run business like Bywaters, with its friendly and enthusiastic staff at plants like the Recycling and Recovery Facility at Bow, and for so long dedicated to sustainable business, to now also reap the economic benefits they deserve for themselves and their clients.

As I found during a recent visit to the Bywaters Bow Recycling Plant, staff work very closely with the waste producing companies from which they accept their waste, such that quite soon after even the least “environmentally aware” organisations come aboard, they are able to up their game and massively improve the purity of their client’s source segregation systems within just a few short months

This is a win-win situation because not only is the residual waste quantity reduced for the client, but the value of the purer recycled (source segregated) material reduces the processing cost at the Bywaters’ faciility. This enables real cost benefits to all parties, not least to the buyer of the much cleaner recyclate products produced, who in turn will happily pay substantially more for the higher quality recyclate material.

These recycling companies are now well placed to continue to raise recycling rates as a percentage of total waste produced, satisfying public demand, and to work in partnership with their clients to further invest in improving the efficiency of the their recycling processes. These improvements also aided by their clients will continue to push down costs, and are already providing higher quality recycled raw materials, of a consistency, quantity, and quality which could never have been imagined just 7 years ago when “Waste not, want not” was published.

The future will see reliable and “main stream” bulk availability of quality controlled recycled products. I am convinced that the very existence of these products will continue to raise the game in recycling to take it to a new level where these waste products become seen as the norm. They will be expected to comprise at least a part of the raw material used in every product, and this will happen throughout the production industries.

The positive feedback which will result will further stabilise and raise the markets in recycled commodities and the volatility in these markets will in turn moderate to become unremarkable.

So, for any companies that are not recycling their waste, the message is that there can be absolutely no reason now for not getting involved to the fullest. Being “green” in industrial and commercial waste management just makes sense like never before.

The plant in East Kilbride, whose products include Coca-Cola, Fanta, Dr Pepper and Sprite, will improve its recycling facilities and work with an external waste contractor to reach the target.

The announcement comes as new SEPA figures reveal that Scotland has exceeded its European landfill target 18 months early, with 1.29 million tonnes of waste being sent to landfill; the end of 2010 target of 1.32 million tonnes has already been met..

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) made the waste reduction pledge as they opened a new, more efficient production line following an investment of three million pounds by the soft drinks manufacturer.

Opening the new line, which will increase the rate of production by 8,000 bottles an hour, Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead, said:

“As part of our own plans to make Scotland a greener place, the Scottish Government wants to see everyone – the general public, businesses and the public sector – doing their bit to create a zero waste society.

“The private sector has the potential to make a huge contribution towards zero waste and that is why it is so encouraging to see a global name like Coca-Cola showing real leadership by taking long-term action to eradicate waste.

“Seeing efforts such as this first hand as Scotland exceed the initial landfill target is very encouraging and shows a continued and joined-up commitment to waste reduction. However, our commitment must not end here. We need to stop viewing waste as a problem and start recognising its economic potential.”

Coca-Cola Enterprise’s East Kilbride Operations Director, Jim Duddy said:

“Currently about 93 per cent of the factory waste is recycled and our teams are completely focused on improving our waste avoidance, each day, and at every step in our process”.

Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc, the world’s largest marketer, producer and distributor of the products of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC). Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd manufactures and distributes TCCC products, as well as products for other brand-owners, throughout England, Scotland and Wales, and employs around 4,600 people.

The Scottish team has a strong track record of innovation. The East Kilbride factory was the first Coca-Cola factory worldwide to manufacture the 500ml plastic bottle. Today, the ‘washing’ of new empty bottles before they are filled, which has traditionally been done using water, now uses blasts of ionized air, reducing the amount of water used in the production process.

The EU Landfill Directive requires Scotland to reduce to a maximum of 1.32 million tonnes the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill by the end of 2010. However, new figures published by SEPA show that target has already been achieved with 1.29 million tonnes being landfilled.

More.