The Westminster site also announced changes to the household recycling rules. Residents can start to recycle “all wax-lined, plastic-lined and foil lined cartons, including milk cartons and Tetra Pak.”

Brighton & Howe Adds Energy Saving Light Bulbs to Recycling Efforts

Brighton & Howe City Council’s website announced that energy saving light bulbs can now be recycled at the local recycling centres. This is to include unbroken fluorescent and energy saving light bulbs. Bulbs may be dropped off at participating retailers who will then deliver them in bulk to the recycling centres.

The site has also published a highly-informative article and video pertaining to the Black box recycling scheme. An easy to understand video has been provided as well as a link to frequently asked problems.

Preston Adds Wheelie Bins

Preston City Council has announced changes to recycling that affects a few areas in Fulwood. Recycling wheelie bins are now permissible in place of the recycling boxes. The plan is to change over to the wheelie bin scheme over a period of the next three years. Residents that receive the new wheelie bins can start to use them right away. Normal use of the recycling box should continue until residents receive the wheelie bin.

In related environmental news, the site announced that three new road sweepers have been acquired by the city. They shall be deployed to help combat the growing problem of litter. Residents are reminded that littering costs them money, detracts from the city’s natural charm, and causes unwanted problems in the environment.

Oxford City Informs the Public on Food Waste Recycling

Oxford City’s website published a comprehensive page devoted to Food Waste Recycling. Information is provided regarding household collections and the weekly food waste recycling scheme. Beyond the scope of the page, there is additional information provided in a two page downloadable PDF file that can be printed out. The PDF provides a four-colour, informative poster and a Frequently Asked Questions page pertaining to food waste recycling.

On the site, additional charts and high-quality graphics are easy to understand and do an outstanding job of explaining what should, and should not be recycled using the food waste caddy that is provided to residents by the City of Oxford. A handy video entitled Love Food Hate Waste is also included on the page.

The Oxford page also includes a detailed graphic entitled “Lining Your Kitchen Bucket.” One cannot help but notice that the Oxford site is packed with information that covers

Indepth Report Added to Recycling Guide

An excellent online guide to recycling in the UK can be found at the recycling-guide.org.uk website. This site provides in depth information about general recycling principles as well as information specific to various kinds of recyclate.

The guide covers topics like school and home recycling, how different materials are recycled, and safety tips so that you’re recycling experience will be pleasurable.

Recycling, reusing and reducing waste in the environment make for a better quality of life all around. It translates into fewer emissions, less, chemicals, less contamination. That means cleaner land, air, water, energy and food for everyone.

The recycling guide website offers additional pages that discuss the wise and environment-friendly way to use electricity, gas and water responsibly. Learning to avoid waste and over-consumption is what being a model planetary citizen is all about.

The more you know about the concept of recycling, the more you will be able to use the recycling process to your advantage. Did you know, for instance, that:

1. You can power a TV for 3 hours with the energy saved from recycling one can?
2. A standard 60-watt light can be powered with the energy saved from one plastic bottle?
3. Recycling one glass bottle can power a computer for almost one-half hour?

These and other fun factoids are found on the recycling guide site. You can also find a page that outlines the government targets set forth in The Landfill Directive and Waste Strategy 2000. Information about the Environment Agency and its goals are provided, along with contact information for the agency’s head office.

The answers to your recycling questions and news about waste technologies can be found online at the website for your local council or at the recycling guide web site. Do your part and motivate your community to become more educated and more involved in recycling, reusing and reducing.

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According to statistics released by the Welsh government, over half of Welsh councils have met or beaten the first statutory target of 52 per cent of rubbish placed in recycling bins by 2012/13. The targets are part of the government ‘Towards Zero Waste Strategy’.

Areas that have the most successful rates currently are Denbighshire, where locals recycled 57 per cent of their waste. Second for recycling rates were Powys and Caerphilly, with a 56 per cent rate. These areas also has the largest increase of recycling rate over the time period, increasing nine and seven per cent from 2011.

Talking about the statistics released, the Welsh minister for natural resources, Alun Davies, told mrw.co.uk: “Our targets are very ambitious and so this is no mean feat. I am grateful to councils across Wales for the hard work they have put in to improving their collection services which have driven up recycling rates.”

He added: “We still have some way to go if we are to continue to achieve our ambitious recycling targets and I encourage everyone to spend a few extra minutes each week to separate out and recycle their rubbish.”

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As with anything in life and in business, there is a right way and there is a wrong way to proceed in the matter. The focus of your efforts should be upon things that matter most. In other words, do not get so sidetracked with the minutiae that you fail to competently handle the major components.

For the past 15 years, I worked for a global automotive finance corporation that went wild going through the motions of protecting personally identifying information. It bordered on obsessive and they refused to listen when I explained that they were expending energy and resources on things that didn’t matter while not paying attention to the big picture.

The managers were typically abusive about their position. They knew what was needed. I was a peon. I should comply with the policies and do my job. I tried to reach out to upper management in headquarters. That didn’t work out well and I was threatened with the loss of my job if I ever went over the heads of local management again.

My job was call centre related. If you have ever worked in a call centre, you know that you typically have a plethora of phone numbers, policy, procedure, best practices, and helpful information tacked or pinned to your cubicle walls. This is to save time, reduce call time, and make the representative sound knowledgeable and competent. In fact, we were dinged on those very things when the call was not handled according to the guidelines.

Remember to Focus Your Data Protection in the Right Way

But then, someone was elevated to high office and took the privacy issue way out of context. When I tell you that we were suddenly not even allowed to share information with our counterparts in the dealerships, know that I am not exaggerating. Valuable communication lines were subverted. Information that was required to do the job could not be transmitted to our own people.

At first we were told that all policies and procedures had to be removed from cubicle walls. If you needed to know something, you now would have to look it up as opposed to just looking up at the cubicle wall for frequently used information.

Next, we were told that all phone numbers had to be removed from the cubicles. This included our own internal number lists, local fast food places we called to order lunch, etc. When I asked what this had to do with protecting personal identifying information I was told that a burglar might break in and steal the information. I explained that we were in a low crime area and that after some 17 years in the same facility there had never been a break-in of any kind. That didn’t matter. They were not taking any chances of someone getting Domino’s number and calling in a pizza order.

Rubbish Protection Is Important, but Get the Protection Right

I attempted to educate the local managers on how ID thieves work and that breaking in to steal info from cubicle walls was not something done by people with the ability to steal hundreds of credit card accounts or hack into government sites.

I further pointed out that we had a greater chance of losing information via loss or theft of one of the hundreds of laptop computers that field sales and managers used to work from the road or from home.

Rather than stop playing around with the idea of a break-in scenario and focus the reality of our largely unsecure databases, they cracked down even further.

Now we could not leave any paper whatsoever on our desks unless we were sitting there. Break, lunch, and bathroom – all papers had to be removed and locked in a file drawer. This, they explained, was to prevent someone from stealing customer information while you are away. I argued that the building had armed security at the entrance and secure-locks on the other doors that required a key card. As for fellow employees, we ALL had access to the customer database.

Soon, locked data bins (confidential) were deployed for the disposal of all sensitive paperwork. A third-party vendor had control over these bins and removed them to their shredder facility on a weekly basis. Not long after this, identity thieves struck and they struck hard. Over 13,000 consumers were compromised and several had been victimized. The criminals apparently were able to obtain credit bureau vendor codes and use the unauthorized credit reports to commit their crimes. Oddly, they never called in a pizza order.

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The manufacturer has long sought to reduce its own carbon footprint, having recently imposed a target on itself to reduce carbon emissions a third by 2010. It has since reduced the volume of water needed to make each litre of its products and cut the carbon footprint for the UK alone by 11 per cent.

Coca-Cola’s latest step in achieving its goal will include researching consumer behaviour where recycling is concerned. It is hoped that the results of this unique and in-depth study will offer all businesses more information to help ensure their packages and materials end up in recycling bins after use.

Entitled ‘Recycle for the Future’, the study will be undertaken alongside researchers from the University of Exeter. It will see a total of 20 households measured to ascertain their recycling habits and get behind the reasons for each decision. The test group will be made up of 10 households in London and a further 10 in Normandy, France.

Coca-Cola announced that it is researching the issue in such depths in a bid to get into the “black box” of the household to see what exactly is prompting the decisions on whether or not to recycle.

Commenting on the study, director of sustainability at Coca-Cola, Joe Franses, told recyclinginternational.com: ”Recycle for the Future is groundbreaking research for us.

“Across our business we put onto the marketplace 12 billion bottles and cans every single week. But when you look at the value chain, packaging accounts for 48 per cent of the carbon footprint of the drink in your hand, so reducing the carbon footprint of that bottle through the simple act of recycling is absolutely fundamental to bringing that carbon footprint down.”

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Cuddly mascot Reece Icle will now be the face of recyclable rubbish in the Essex area. The mascot was designed by ten-year-old Nisha Ramaphal of William Martin School who won a competition to design the character which was launched by the council last October.

It was hoped by the council that the competition, which was open to Year Six students, would help raise awareness about recycling and its benefits to the area.

Harlow Council currently spends around £800,000 a year on street cleaning services, which include picking up litter that doesn’t make it into bins, according to harlow.gov.uk, which it could use on other measures.

Talking about the mascot and competition, councillor Emma Toal, cabinet member for youth & citizenship told harlowstar.co.uk: “Recycling is such an important subject and we should all be aware of the benefits to our environment that recycling can bring.”

She added: “The competition to design a mascot to promote the message of recycling and reducing litter on and around the local community provided an excellent opportunity to involve young people in getting this message out, as well as encourage them to be responsible about reducing litter.”

Ms Toal said Reece Icle’s role will be helping to promote the council’s recycling message in the local community, as well as raising engagement levels with local younger residents.

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Northumberland and South Tyneside Council are among five councils to take part in the scheme, which will see residents in with a chance of winning their share of a £10,000 prize fund. The measures, which are part of the North East Recycling Awards, are hoping the amount of recycling placed in bins around the region.

Each month, one resident will receive a prize fund of £250 as part of the campaign. Talking about the measures, Paul Jones, head of waste management at Northumberland County Council told newspostleader.co.uk: “We are always looking for new and innovative ways to help residents recycle as many items of waste as they can.”

He added: “This scheme is a great way of reminding people about some of the materials that can be recycled but they may not be aware of.”

Residents who want to be in with a chance of winning the prize money must register online to take part in the scheme. All they will have to do after that is to apply a sticker to items such as hard plastic bottles (such as shampoo containers) empty aerosols, glass jars and food and drink cartons.

The scheme is being handled by Waste Aware North East and is being funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, according to shieldsgazette.com. The other councils to be taking part in the measures are Durham, Newcastle and Sunderland.

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If you have an interest in how you can use the recycling and reusing scheme to create some unusual and intriguing items to use at the home, school, dorm or office, then check out Recycled Wonders on Pinterest.

Here you will find hundreds of photos depicting the creative ways in which people have turned old, useless junk into practical, usable items. This is the essence of recycling, reusing and reducing waste. This is the heart of the green movement and the rewards that can be enjoyed from pursuing it.

Items featured include a unique and decorative way to use old wooden chairs to make an elevated dog feeding station that is great for large-sized dogs, create beautiful tin can lanterns, or turn an old suitcase and mirror into a new medicine cabinet, complete with locks to keep unwanted guests and kids out.

The site displays hundreds of remarkable ideas that even the least crafty person can use to create useful items and reduce landfill waste. The pictures are beautifully shot and are reminiscent of a quaint old mail order catalog packed with exquisite home ideas. But, rather than having to purchase these items, you can learn how to mix a little recycling with a touch of creativity and VOILA, you will have them cost-free. And, each project will trigger new ideas that you can enjoy.

• Have you ever considered making a handy tote bag by weaving old shopping bags together?
• Would you have thought to use an old caster wheel as a photo paperweight on your desk?
• How about using an old bicycle rim to create a grow rack for sweet peas?
• Why toss out old shirts when they can easily be redesigned into a dress for a toddler?

The recycling projects that you find here typically have instructions, tutorials and more helpful info so that you can begin to turn all junk in the attic or garage into something useful and keep it out of the local landfill.

Recycling Wonders

Another fascinating web site is the blog entitled Recycling Wonders. This site is perfect for the person who wants to reuse old items rather than trash them. Not only does this reduce the burden on the environment, but it is a thrifty way to own practical items with barely any cost. Reusing eliminates the cost of hauling the item to the landfill, and it saves landfill space. The ideas are free, the old items are free, and it is just a wonderful experience of freedom, of creativity and of love of the planet.

While not as extensive as the previously discussed site, this blog is full of equally fun and exciting ideas and projects that will motivate you to take a second look at things you consider rubbish. Maybe they have a purpose after all. And in that repurposing you will find a plethora of pleasure and utility. Create new things from old and improve the environment by doing so.

SuperGreen Technologies

For the more technology-oriented green enthusiast, there is SuperGreen Technologies. Supergreen provides nanotechnology tankless hot water heaters. Both commercial and residential properties can enjoy the deep cost savings by installing such technology. Put the environment first and do your part to save clean water while also saving your hard-earned money.

The site discusses how the use of Far-Infrared Technology works and how it affects the human body and the environment. Discover the fascinating Quartz Far-Infrared Heating Element, a truly breakthrough device that can save you money while preserving the environment.

You can also find a useful directory of all the Conservation Departments and Conservation Laws in the USA. Additional links provide information on local recycling centres, oil reprocessing centres, and more.

The nanotechnologies are state of the art processes that are the way things will work tomorrow, but available for our benefit today.

Conclusion

Web sites such as the ones referenced above show different sides of the waste and recycling process. Here there is no gritty, grimy, smelly waste. Instead, there is the forward-looking perspective of the new technologies and the rearward-looking creativity that transforms useless rubbish into things of beauty.

Once you are aware of the many benefits that come with recycling, reusing and reducing waste, you will better positioned to reap maximum benefit from these processes. In doing so, you will help to save the environment around you. This means cleaner air, water, land and energy for everyone. It also means a more sustainable existence for this and for future generations.

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In addition, you will want to develop a plan for getting the bins cleaned out each day. A small business may have one person designated to empty the small bins into the outside waste bin. Larger businesses will fare better if they hire a cleaning service to handle this because paying employees to do housekeeping chores of this magnitude is not cost-effective.

Outside the Business

First, start with the outside. Do you require a waste container or has one been provided for your company by the property owners? If one has not been provided, you will need to search for a waste bin that can handle a week’s worth of rubbish since most pickups occur only about once a week now. Keep in mind that if there is ever a strike or weather issue that delays a pick-up you do not want to be stuck with an overflowing waste bin outside your business.

Determine if the outside bin should be segregated for recycling or not. Most waste management containers are not so segregated as it normally the case that result is sorted into other bins and not placed in the general waste bin.  Again, this is a call that you may or may not have to make depending on if you are going to have to provide the bin system or not.

Placement of the bin and aesthetic coverage will also need to be determined. Make sure that the outside bin will be firmly seated in an area that will not lead to deterioration of the bin’s bottom. Most plastic bins are best set up on a pallet or a homemade platform to keep it from being scraped on rough concrete or asphalt. This would also apply to a metal bin where moisture on the ground would quickly rust out the bottom.

Outside the building, but closer to it, you may wish to place a cigarette bin. This can be used by customers or visitors and by employees who must take the occasional smoke break. It is advisable that the cigarette bin, and thus the smoking area, not be too close to the main entrance of your business as this will have a negative impact on customers and other people with whom you do business.

Inside the Business

Inside the business, you are likely to require bins in at least three places:

1. You will need a bin in the restroom for the disposal of paper towels.
2. You will need waste paper bins at each desk, cubicle or workstation. Offices used for training or meetings need have only one container as that is usually sufficient for that type of environment.
3. You will need to place a couple of bins in the break room or cafeteria.

The cafeteria in another area in which you may wish to deploy segregate containers, or at least separate containers for each type of recyclate. This should be based upon the amount of recyclate you expect to have. Many environment-conscious businesses deploy a bin to collect aluminium cans, another for plastic bottles, and then allow all other waste to be disposed of in a general waste container.

Organizing the Bins

Some insist that employees break down rubbish a step or two further and provide a cardboard bin and a paper bin. Larger corporations can afford to do this because they have a sufficient number of employees. When large amounts of waste cardboard are being generated by employees bringing in boxed TV dinners or take out that is packaged in cardboard, it makes sense.

Actually, it makes more than sense, it makes money. This is another reason why larger companies will insist on full-fledged recycling of cans, plastic, cardboard and paper. The revenue generated can sometimes be sizeable.  Of course, in this day of cost-cutting and penny-pinching even in the largest corporations, every little bit of revenue helps. Each business has to make the determination as to the value of recycling and how to approach it.

When you are ready to select the bins you need, visit the internet or a local shop to select the appropriate bins for your environment. You will be delighted that bins are available in a wide range of colours, shapes and sizes, and can easily blend into your business environment rather than detract from it.

Bins are affordable and are a great way to control the rubbish generated by your employee base.

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Derby Council had been planning to stop recycling bin collection on 140 city streets across the city. These included parts of Abbey, Arboretum, Mackworth and Normanton wards. The council had argued that many people, including some students, weren’t recycling in the right way and that the recycling message wasn’t getting through.

However, those at the University argued that more information is needed on how to recycle, rather than the collection of the recycling bins being stopped. James Beckett, president of the University of Derby Students’ Union commented to thisisderbyshire.co.uk: “While we would agree that those students who have moved from other parts of the UK might find the local recycling scheme different, it is far from an impossible task to re-educated them.”

Labour councillor Paul Pegg, who represents that Mackworth ward argued that Mr Beckett was ‘burying his head in the sand’, however saying: “We’ve put leaflets out, we’ve been to freshers’ fairs and last year we had three people knocking on doors and it’s not made the slightest difference.”

He claimed that it is now up to neighbourhood boards of the four wards to decide if the plans was going to go ahead or not. According to resource.uk.com, the council said earlier this month that the changes would help save the area £500,000 per year.

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According to foodmanufacture.co.uk, a decision by Ceredigion County Council to add cartons to its collection of kerbside recycling bins means that 203 out of 406 local authorities now offer such a service.

These figures help to usher in a first for the UK, with the region’s first beverage carton recycling facility set to open.

Reported by waste-management-world.com, the 25,000 tonne per year capacity recycling plant will be located near Halifax, West Yorkshire and will allow the cartons to be recycled in the UK for the first time. The facility will be a new avenue for local councils and their contractors not looking to export waste to other facilities overseas.

Richard Hands, chief executive of ACE UK, commented on the opening of the plant: “In the year that the UK’s only dedicated recycling facility for cartons is scheduled to open, we are extremely pleased that our strategy to increase kerbside collection and make it easier for residents to recycle cartons is also paying dividends.”

According to ACE, around 60,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons are used in the UK to package milk, fruit juice and an increasingly wider range of food products.

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Under the third phase of the Courtauld Commitment, all major grocery retailers have agreed to work towards three new environmental goals, including a desire to reduce household food waste by five per cent by 2015.

Measures being introduced through the agreement are a range of product portion sizes and advice on how to use up leftovers. For example, leftovers could either be used to create a new dish or thrown into recycling bins at home.

Furthermore, retailers are active participants in the ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ campaign run by WRAP, a resource efficiency body, cites scotlandfoodanddrink.org.

Welcoming the agreement is the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which claims the deal is a ‘clear demonstration’ of retailers’ commitment to reducing food waste further.

Andrew Opie, BRC food and sustainability director, commented on the move: “These new targets build on the major strides already made by grocery retailers to reduce food and packaging waste.

“Despite the downturn and other challenges affecting business, the retail industry is continuing to innovate and collaborate on waste reduction as well as working hard to meet wider green goals across all aspects of its operations,” he added.

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The new scheme will see the organisation install recycling bins at 19 of its stations across Scotland. The measures have been made possible thanks to a £37,000 grant from Zero Waste Scotland, as part of its ‘Recycle on the Go’ project.  

The scheme has been developed to try and help railways in Scotland become ’greener’ as well as help customers to recycle on the go. Steve Montgomery, ScotRail’s managing director, told resource.uk.com: “We are confident that our customers will welcome this move to make it quicker and easier for them to recycle while on the move.”

He added: “The trial supports our ongoing commitment to creating a greener railway for Scotland.”

The bins will be placed in stations including Aberdeen, Glasgow, Inverness, Irvine, Oban and Wemyss Bay. Bins will be colour-coded to show what materials can be placed in them, with separate bins for plastic bottles, paper and tin cans. Volunteers from nearby community groups will also be present at the station at peak times, encouraging travellers to use the facilities.

Zero Scotland’s ‘Recycle on the Go’ campaign has distributed £500,000 to more than 30 projects so far. The scheme hopes to increase Scotland’s recycling rate as well as bring financial benefits, according to zerowastescotland.org.uk.

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By making changes to its products, Waitrose hopes to save ‘about 100 metric tons’ of packaging each year.

The width of the sleeves on the outside of the products has been decreased, resulting in a reduction of 33 metric tons of packaging per year – equivalent to a 20 per cent overall weight saving.

Furthermore, the retailer will be introducing aluminium trays as part of its packaging, allowing customers to cook and serve their meals and recycle the tray via their recycling bins after use.

Overall, halving packaging by 2016 forms one of the 12 pledges made by the supermarket as part of their ‘Waitrose Way’ commitments to sustainability.

Karen Graley, Waitrose packaging and reprographics manager, commented on the move to resource.uk.com: “We are always working hard to reduce packaging where we can, to decrease the waste reaching our customers’ bins and ensure they can recycle as much as possible.

“Relaunching a range is a fantastic opportunity to do this and cutting packaging by nearly 100 tonnes per year is a great result to have achieved on our journey to halving packaging by 2016,” she added.

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Bath and North East Somerset council was forced into conducting inspections around the area after residents voiced their concerns over waste cluttering the streets. After finding that many businesses were offloading their bags of rubbish on the wrong days, officials issued a series of warnings to the repeat offenders.

Councillors have dished out final warning letters to 36 companies that are said to have ignored rules regarding trade waste. Meanwhile a further four businesses have received legal notices after failing to acknowledge their final warnings.

Cited by bathnes.gov.uk, Oldfield councillor David Dixon said the message was simple – companies must put their trade waste out at the agreed times or face the consequences.

He claimed to have witnessed numerous examples of litter and food lying around after spilling out onto the street. Of course, businesses could rectify this by putting their waste in external bins and taking them out at the correct time.

“The council has been really clear to businesses about the expectations of the community. Ignoring us will result in being hit in the pocket or taken to court,” added Mr Dixon.

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Published last week, the eight-page document has been lambasted by some as being too light and not containing enough hard facts or evidence, recycle.org.uk reports. Labour’s Gavin Shuker, who holds the party’s waste and water briefs, however, has defended the Review and labelled it a “stepping stone” to a much more productive future. He added that it also provides a baseline for further consultation work over the coming 18 months.

Shuker explained how, where recycling was concerned, his party aimed to promote it as a profit-making venture to win hearts and minds, before the harder task of setting out goals and targets is undertaken.

Despite this, one target has already been created, that of raising municipal recycling targets in England to 70 per cent by 2025, which could bring with it a rise not only in the number of recycling bins provided but also the regularity of collection.

Responding to the criticism of Labour’s document, Shuker told mrw.co.uk: “This isn’t an empty document. For example, it is not a document saying ‘let’s add a couple of quid on the landfill tax escalator and let the market sort it out for itself.’ We are looking right across government and asking what we can do.”

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