News updates from CIWM’s commercial partners.
Keenan Recycling | Yorkshire pub pioneers sustainable food waste recycling
The Station Inn, a beloved traditional pub nestled in the picturesque Yorkshire Dales, is making waves for its commitment to sustainability.
By partnering with Keenan Recycling, the pub has successfully reduced food waste, saved costs, and set an example for others in the hospitality industry.
A history of sustainability
The Station Inn, established in 1879, has a long history of serving the local community. Located near the iconic Ribblehead Viaduct, the pub has always been a popular destination for visitors and locals alike.
Recognising the importance of environmental responsibility, The Station Inn sought ways to reduce its environmental impact. Partnering with Keenan Recycling was a natural fit for the pub’s sustainability goals. This collaboration has enabled the pub to divert food waste from landfills and contribute to a more sustainable future.
A partnership for a greener future
Joe Ineson, Chef at The Station Inn: “Partnering with Keenan Recycling has been a great decision. It has helped us reduce food waste, save money, and contribute to a greener future.”
Addressing food waste challenges
Prior to partnering with Keenan Recycling, The Station Inn faced challenges related to food waste disposal. The cost of waste removal, storage limitations, and environmental concerns were pressing issues that needed to be addressed.
Keenan Recycling’s solution
By implementing Keenan Recycling’s food waste collection services, The Station Inn has successfully overcome these challenges. The partnership has provided the pub with a reliable and efficient solution for food waste management.
Key benefits of the partnership
Reduced food waste: The Station Inn has identified areas for improvement, such as portion control and offering smaller plate options, which have helped to reduce food waste.
Cost savings: Diverting food waste from landfills has led to significant cost savings for The Station Inn.
Environmental impact: By recycling food waste, The Station Inn is contributing to a greener future and reducing its carbon footprint.
Customer satisfaction: The Station Inn has maintained its traditional pub atmosphere while implementing sustainable practices, ensuring a positive customer experience.
Sustainability initiatives
In addition to food waste recycling, The Station Inn is actively working to reduce its environmental impact through other initiatives, such as sourcing local ingredients and minimising single-use plastics.
Keenan Recycling’s partnership with The Station Inn has made a significant contribution to environmental sustainability.
In the last year alone, Keenan saved 4.8 tonnes of CO2 for The Station Inn, thereby reducing landfill waste and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Working with our Anaerobic Digestion (AD) partners, they generated renewable energy that is equivalent to fully charging 720 mobile phones daily for a year.
Keenan Recycling is proud to play a role in helping businesses like The Station Inn reduce their environmental footprint and contribute to a greener future.
Andrew Hall, General Manager at The Station Inn, said, “We are happy to be associated with Keenan Recycling to build a greener England and reduce our carbon footprint by recycling our food waste.”
Community engagement
The Station Inn’s partnership with Keenan Recycling has also allowed them to promote sustainability within the local community. By sharing their experiences and encouraging others to adopt eco-friendly practices, The Station Inn is making a positive contribution to the region.
Andrew Gerlach, Head of Customer Service at Keenan Recycling. Said: “The Station Inn is a valued customer in the hospitality sector, and we’re committed to providing them with exceptional service. Our team is always available to assist with any needs or concerns, ensuring a positive and seamless experience.”
The Station Inn’s partnership with Keenan Recycling demonstrates the commitment of businesses in the hospitality sector to sustainability. By reducing food waste and implementing other eco-friendly practices, The Station Inn is setting an example for others to follow.
Nuclear Waste Services | GDF Report 2024
Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) has published its 2024 Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) Report, detailing progress of the GDF siting process.
The 2024 report highlights that there are three communities across England, two in Cumbria, Mid Copeland and South Copeland, and one in Lincolnshire around Theddlethorpe, who are engaging in the programme to learn what hosting a GDF could mean for them.
This programme is unique in the UK, in that it requires explicit community support to go ahead. NWS is working to ensure people have access to the information they need to make an informed decision.
For a GDF, alongside a willing host community, we also require a suitable site. We have started and progressed a range of studies and surveys.
The emerging data is helping us to identify locations for further investigative work, such as drilling deep boreholes, to understand the geology and help us ensure a GDF can be constructed, operated, and closed safely and securely. Early analysis shows that the areas that are part of the process all have potential to host a GDF.
Communities benefit from early funding while engaging in the process – and the report highlights how more than £7 million has supported a range of projects in Cumberland and Lincolnshire.
The projects include support for the Winter Warmth Fund and the Bootle and District First Responders in South Copeland, a grant for the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team in Mid Copeland, and community initiatives, including an adventure playground, in Theddlethorpe.
The community which is eventually selected to host a GDF will also benefit from Significant Additional Investment potentially worth many millions of pounds.
This investment would be shaped by a local community vision and could include local education and skills capacity, transport infrastructure or recreational facilities. The programme will also create thousands of jobs and real economic growth for the host community for many decades.
Ecomondo | Blue Economy, a strategic resource for the future, in the spotlight at Ecomondo 2024 in Italy
According to The EU Blue Economy Report 2024, Blue Economy contributes €171.1 bn in gross valued added and €76.4bn in gross profit and employs over 3.5 mn people across EU-27 Member States.
This sector sustainably exploits marine and coastal resources by providing raw materials, energy, food and tourism and contributing to the conservation of biodiversity and the prevention of natural hazards. With over 7,500 km of coastline, Italy is one of the European leaders in the Blue Economy.
Ecomondo 2024, a major reference hub for the green and circular economy organised by Italian Exhibition Group (IEG) and scheduled to take place at Rimini Expo Centre, Italy, from 5 to 8 November, will provide a unique platform to explore these topics and innovative solutions in the management of marine resources, with particular focus on offshore renewables and blue biotechnology.
These emerging sectors offer European and global companies an enormous opportunity for growth.
“The Blue Economy,” said Alessandra Astolfi, Director of IEG’s Green & Technology Division, “is vital for our sustainable future and investments in low-emission technologies and the sustainable management of marine resources are crucial to maintain and expand its positive impact.”
To date, Liguria and Sicily are the predominant Italian regions for the Blue Economy. Liguria, thanks to its shipbuilding and port network, has an annual turnover of 5 billion euros. Sicily, supported by tourism and maritime transport, follows with 4.5 billion euros (source: EU Report on the Blue Economy 2023, ISTAT).
Globally, the Blue Economy is worth around 1,300 billion euros and is expected to double by 2030. In Europe, it generates around 624 billion euros in turnover, accounting for 5% of EU GDP.
Italy, along with Spain, Greece and France, is among the leading countries in terms of employment in coastal tourism and its fishing and aquaculture activities are considerable (source: The EU Blue Economy Report 2024).
The Blue or Marine Economy encompasses traditional sectors such as fishing, aquaculture, maritime transport and coastal tourism, as well as emerging sectors such as marine renewable energies like offshore wind energy and blue biotechnology, robotics and artificial intelligence.
Enabling sectors include ports, communication networks, training and education, maritime governance and planning. Coastal and maritime tourism is a major employment sector, followed by fishing and aquaculture, where sustainable resource management is crucial.
“Ecomondo 2024,” Astolfi explained, “will explore key topics such as reducing emissions, sustainable management of marine resources and the promotion of the circular economy. The Italian maritime sector not only supports the country economically but is also actively engaged in environmental protection and in training a new generation of conscious professionals.”
Ecomondo 2024 will be staging various meetings and conferences dedicated to the Water Cycle and Blue Economy sector. The updated programme on these topics can be found here.
Wood Recyclers’ Association | New figures show important role of UK waste wood sector in delivering net zero
The UK waste wood industry’s important contribution to reducing carbon emissions has been revealed with the launch of new independently-verified figures from the Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA).
The figures show that waste wood biomass – which makes up roughly two thirds of the UK market for waste wood – saved almost three-quarters of a million (701,000) tonnes of carbon emissions in 2023 when compared to the likely displaced energy generation.
And, if these plants were fitted with carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), this could rise to 3.6 million tonnes of carbon savings in future – representing 16% of the government’s target to capture 23MtCO2/year by 2035.
The figures were calculated using a model peer-reviewed by certification body Kiwa*, utilising the WRA’s most recent (2023) waste wood statistics.
Furthermore, elsewhere in the waste wood sector, new figures** show the panel board sector sequestered over a million tonnes (1.1mt) of carbon in its particle board products in 2023 from the use of waste wood.
The carbon data represents the culmination of two years of work by the Wood Recyclers’ Association’s Net Zero working group, which aimed to quantify the carbon benefits that the waste wood sector provides in addition to its contribution to the circular economy.
Richard Jenkins, WRA Board Member and the Chair of the working group, said: “We are delighted to launch these figures today which provide further evidence of the critical role that our sector plays not just in the circular economy but also in helping to deliver net zero.
“Our sector helps to lock away carbon in products made from recycled wood and then at the end of their life they are used to produce low-carbon renewable energy – supporting a carbon neutral energy system.
“For biomass, our data also shows the potential for UK plants to deliver even greater carbon benefits in future, with the introduction of carbon and capture and storage technology.”
“Many thanks to Ugo Gasparino from RWE Generation who was instrumental in building the carbon savings model and providing invaluable support to the working group.”
Richard Coulson, Chair of the WRA, added: “We are delighted that Kiwa has supported what our modelling has shown, that waste wood biomass prevented 701,000 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2023.
“It is now really important that we are given urgent clarity from government about support for our sector post ROCS. In particular, our plants need transitional support to give them time to introduce carbon capture and storage technology and we need confirmation that Non-Pipeline Transport options can be linked to the Greenhouse Gas Removals Business Model.
“We need to ensure we make the most of these assets because if we don’t our potential to deliver 3.6 million tonnes of carbon savings will be lost.”
“It is not just our recovery members who are making a positive carbon impact”, he added. “The panel board sector sequestered 1.1 million tonnes of carbon in its products in 2023, through its use of waste wood, ensuring this carbon is locked up for the long term.
“This is why it is critical that we continue to have packaging recycling targets which are high enough to incentivise recycling and provide a sustainable support mechanism.”
Greyparrot | Greyparrot launches major update to alerting system to drive adaptive MRFs
AI waste analytics developer Greyparrot launched a major update to its live notification system at this year’s RWM expo in Birmingham.
The new features are a milestone in lean resource recovery, designed to help recovery facility staff optimise product quality and plant capacity in real time.
As part of their Greyparrot Analyzer system, the widely-used “Alerts” feature notifies staff of dips in purity and other sudden changes in material composition.
When composition shifts beyond the facility’s thresholds, a notification empowers operators to diagnose and respond to the issue in real time. By adapting quickly, facilities can proactively reduce commodity loss while safeguarding product quality.
The recently-launched update pushes the boundaries of lean facility management even further, introducing new notifications that enable staff to maximise capacity while decreasing facility downtime, which is a significant loss leader.
Tony Fadell, Principal at Greyparrot investor Build Collective and inventor of the iPod and Nest, said this of the software update:
“Recycling facilities need superpowers to identify and classify the value of their waste streams. Greyparrot’s AI-powered waste Analyzer does exactly that: it distinguishes the type of material, brand, size, mass, function, monetary value, and emissions potential of each piece of our trash. Greyparrot turns trash into treasure accurately, quickly, and cost-effectively.”
With Alerts for specific materials, overall mass and item counts, operators get more detailed insight into contaminants and overall throughput. They can then take targeted action to protect profitability:
In one European recovery facility, a single Alert saved £47,000 in reprocessing costs. After Analyzer notified staf of contamination on a key aluminium line, they diagnosed the issue in under 12 minutes — instead of 38 hours later at the next spot sample. By resolving the purity dip in real-time, they avoided a contaminated batch, and 1.6 days’ worth of reprocessing.
Greyparrot is also encouraging faster on-the-ground action. Customisable Alerts dashboard views group related notifications, which the company says its customers display next to the relevant belts.
Staff on the ground get instant visibility into each line’s performance, and can take direct action as soon as it’s needed. The same dashboards can be accessed from the control room, helping facility managers prioritise improvements and delegate staf.
Finally, the company has added Alerts summaries to its suite of reports. The summaries present a historical view of Alerts, enabling operators to spot trends and take a proactive approach to future operations.
Greyparrot has said that its customers use the reports to identify materials that commonly cause blockages, assess supplier material, and prioritise investment in staff training or machinery investment.
The software update was accompanied by the release of Greyparrot’s new Analyzer units, which also debuted at RWM 2024.
The company’s engineers have designed a smaller and lighter monitoring unit to make Analyzer easier to install in tight spaces. The sustainably-designed hardware uses recyclable materials, and a new GPU makes the system 15% more energy eficient.
Greyparrot co-founder Ambarish Mitra shared his excitement about Analyzer’s small environmental footprint, and new Alerts features: “By bringing this latest hardware and its corresponding software update to the market, we’re providing recovery facilities with a sleeker, more sustainable, and low-powered AI solution to increase global recycling rates. Facilities can now better unlock the financial value of their waste to support a transition to a more circular economy, which can keep our environment clean for generations to come.”
Celebrating Employee Excellence, Shaping the Future
As global awareness of environmental issues has grown over recent years, the call for innovative solutions and fresh perspectives in the environmental sector has never been more critical.
Events like the Environmental Services & Solutions Expo serve as a platform that not only recognises the achievements of those making strides in sustainability but also encourages the next generation of professionals. This year, Augean proudly showcased numerous talents, highlighting emerging stars in the industry.
Recognising Future Leaders
At this year’s Environmental Services & Solutions Expo, held at the NEC, Augean gained recognition for having colleagues nominated among the 35 Under 35 Awards —an initiative aimed at honouring young professionals making significant contributions to the environmental field.
Nominees Ellie Metcalfe, Tom Perks, Sarah Stratton, Jazmine Lanario, and Artem Nepryahin were part of a competitive group that attracted over 160 entries from across the sector. This initiative serves as an essential reminder that fostering young talent is vital for the sustainability movement.
Artem Nepryahin’s achievement of securing second place not only underscores his talent but also reflects the growing trend of young professionals stepping into leading roles within environmental services.
The Impact of Recognition and Awards
Awards and nominations like the 35 Under 35 and the ESS Environment 100 play a crucial role in motivating young professionals. Edward Debrah’s recognition in the prestigious ESS Environment 100 reinforces this notion, highlighting a group of trailblazers, innovators, and visionaries spearheading the charge for sustainability within the UK.
Recognition not only validates individual contributions but also serves as a catalyst for change across the sector. By showcasing the talent and innovation of young individuals, these awards raise the profile of environmental issues, encouraging others to participate and engage.
Moreover, they create avenues for networking and mentorship, essential components in professional development.
