2014-10-31

The Guardian: "Flytipping up 20% in England after falling for years"


Link to web site

"The number of mattresses in hedgerows, old sofas on road corners and other illegally-dumped rubbish rose by a fifth in England last year, marking the first increase in flytipping in years.

"Government figures published on Thursday show that there are now more than three quarter of a million incidents in England, taking the amount of rubbish dumped on roadsides, in back alleys and on private land back above 2010 levels, in what campaigners said was a worrying increase.

"Around two-thirds of the rubbish was from households, the equivalent of one incident for every 39 households in England."

2014-05-30

Anaerobic digestion plant explodes


Link to Shropshire Star

"A power plant using farm waste today exploded at Harper Adams University, spilling tonnes of slurry.

"A 200-metre exclusion zone was today put in place by police, who described it as a 'chemical incident'.

"It is the second time the £3 million anaerobic digestion plant has leaked sludge across land in Edgmond, near Newport."

2014-03-29

The Guardian / Unilever: "Food waste around the world"


Link to web site

"Jeong Ho-jin dons a pair of plastic gloves to show off his most proud achievement as a district official in Seoul, South Korea, and then uses his keys to unlock a large, rectangular contraption that looks like some kind of futuristic top-loading washing machine. Loaded with bins half-filled with decomposing ginseng, lettuce and other meal remnants, this, it turns out, is South Korea's high-tech solution to food waste.

"Jeong works in one of two districts in Seoul where the high-tech food waste management program is being piloted. The program works by giving each household a card that has a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip embedded in it, containing the user's name and address. They scan their card on a small card-reader on the front of the high-tech bin to get the lid to open, then dump the food waste into the bin and onto the scale at the bottom, which gives a numerical reading of the waste's weight and disposal cost.

...

"... In Malmö, Sweden, we stick our food waste into frustratingly flimsy paper bags, and drop them into a plastic bin downstairs, from where they go to make the gas that powers the city's buses. Malmö uses anaerobic digestion carried out by bacteria and other methane producing organisms to produce methane gas. Each batch spends three weeks in the digester to complete the process. The resulting gas is then purified so it can be used for a fuel. Each paper bag apparently produces enough to drive a car 2.5km."

2014-03-26

Edie.net: "Call to launch landfill bans to create 47,500 jobs in the UK"


Link to web site

"The UK could create 47,500 skilled jobs if it kept five key waste materials out of landfill, according to new research by think tank Green Alliance.

"New analysis by Green Alliance urges the Government to ban wood, textiles, electronics, food and plastics. It states that banning wood could create 3,200 jobs; banning textiles could create 6,600 jobs, banning electronics 9,500 jobs, food 12,100 jobs and plastics 16,100 jobs.

"According to the report, reuse, remanufacturing and recycling creates new and valuable products. Selling these generates profit which supports skilled jobs."