Mersey community groups secure £165,000 funding to help reduce waste
Sixteen community groups have been awarded a share of £165,000 to help the Liverpool City Region reduce, reuse, and recycle more.
The money has come from the Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority (MRWA) and Veolia Community Fund 22/23 which helps to support local waste prevention, re-use, and recycling initiatives.
The sixteen organisations had to bid for the funding which the community fund says will give them the financial resources to deliver waste-reducing behavioural change projects across the region.
Programmes include cookery lessons to reduce food waste, sewing classes and clothes repair clubs, upcycling and restoration of unwanted furniture and community composting, amongst other things.
Project applications had to tackle one or more of the four priority household waste materials which have been identified by MRWA as key: food, plastics, textiles and furniture. Projects can also include other household waste materials, for example, paper, card and metals.
Chairperson of Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA), Councillor Tony Concepcion, said: “There are a lot of communities understandably concerned about climate change and sustainable living.
“Our Community Fund – which has been running since 2006 – gives groups the opportunity to look after the environment, bringing benefits to all of us. I think in this day and age people appreciate items as valuable resources rather than something which might be just thrown away.
“Projects we have previously funded continue to deliver benefits beyond the first year, through their legacy and an ongoing impact on participants’ behaviour, and in many cases through new or continuing activities.”
Over 200,000 tonnes of business electricals are currently thrown away in the UK
New research, published by Material Focus, has found that up to 234,000 tonnes of electrical items are being incorrectly disposed of by businesses and other organisations in the UK every year.
The research follows earlier research, published by Material Focus, that identified that UK householders are throwing away 155,000 tonnes of electrical items per annum.
The “Business Electrical Waste: Challenges and Opportunities” report, researched by Eunomia, has found that up to 484,000 tonnes of electricals were bought by businesses and other organisations during 2019, including phones, IT and appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines.
This is nearly 30% of the total of 1.7 million tonnes that were bought by both consumers and businesses in the UK during 2019.
The carbon benefits of recycling business waste electricals, compared to the manufacture of products using the equivalent amount of virgin materials, were also analysed.
If all the business waste electricals sold in 2019 were eventually recycled, 663,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions could be saved. By comparison, for those electricals from businesses that are currently being recycled, only 175,000 tonnes of CO2e were saved.
Executive Director, Material Focus, Scott Butler, said: “This research highlights the huge benefits if more businesses were to recycle or re-use all of their unwanted electricals.
“With up to 200,000 tonnes of business electricals being thrown away each year, we are losing forever precious and critical raw materials that the UK economy is reliant upon.
“Instead these electricals should be reused, donated to those in need or the materials they are made from recycled and used in new products.”
Scottish council cuts waste contamination in 4 areas
South Ayrshire Council has cut waste contamination in four problem areas, which it says were all suffering from severe fly tipping, by giving its waste strategy an overhaul with the help of Droitwich bin manufacturer Egbert Taylor.
Up until this spring, the council says it had relied on four 240L wheeled bins per flat to manage the general waste and dry recycling of four mixed tenure developments in Ayr and Prestwick.
However, the council says the developments’ infrastructure, including the distance from each property to the bin store, meant that residents were not making correct use of the bins. This resulted in 100% of waste being sent to landfill and in many cases, waste was being fly tipped rather than containerised.
The council says it invested in new infrastructure, which included new paths being built linking each property’s back door to the newly built bin storage, and a communications campaign targeted at residents. It also replaced the two wheeled bins with easy access to Egbert Taylor’s 1100L containers, each of which included the manufacturer’s T-Lock and Lid in Lid solutions.
The T-Lock prevents residents from opening the main lid and leaving it open, which exposes waste to seagulls and invites people to indiscriminately throw waste into the container. The Lid in Lid – a small aperture built into the main lid – also restricts waste deposits to only the size and waste stream the bin has been allocated to collect.
Councillor Martin Kilbride, Buildings, Housing and Environment Portfolio Holder for South Ayrshire Council, said: “This initiative is already making a huge difference, in only three months since rolling out the bins, collection teams have gone from sending 100% of all generated waste to landfill, to minimal contamination.
“Not only that, but the areas are now clean and free of fly-tipping. The Council has used Taylor bins for over 20 years now, and their solutions are helping to boost recycling across South Ayrshire. We’re delighted with the outcome and would like to thank residents and staff for getting behind the campaign.”
Tess Valley energy from waste project launches new website for the project
The Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility (TV ERF) project, which it says could provide a sustainable and zero-carbon waste treatment solution for more than one and a half million people living and working across the North-East, has launched a new website for the project today.
Publication of the website also comes just ahead of an expected announcement on government funding support for industrial carbon capture projects within the East Coast Cluster (ECC).
TV ERF says the project is a vital infrastructure project for the North-East and will provide the seven partner councils (Darlington, Durham, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Redcar & Cleveland and Stockton) with a secure, sustainable and reliable treatment solution for municipal waste from 2026.
Once operational, the TV ERF says the energy recovery facility will treat 450,000 tonnes of residual waste every year and generate nearly 50MW of electricity, enough to power the equivalent of 60,000 average homes.
The launch of the project’s new website comes as the region awaits an announcement by BEIS to determine which projects within the ECC will be considered for financial assistance to support the deployment and ongoing operation of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology.
As an Industrial Carbon Capture (ICC) project within the East Coast Cluster, the TV ERF project partners submitted an application to BEIS for “business model support” under Phase Two of the Cluster Sequencing Process in January 2022 and this application was accepted by BEIS in March 2022 – with a decision on which projects will be progressed to the next stage now expected in July (delayed from May).
SUEZ, Viridor, and Green Recovery Projects Ltd (FFC and Icon Infrastructure) are currently bidding to design, finance, build and operate the TVERF, which will be situated at Teesworks on the site of the former British Steel works, where it is anticipated that the project will contribute to the economic regeneration of the area.
The procurement process is being led by Hartlepool Borough Council on behalf of the project partners.
Hartlepool Managing Director, Denise McGuckin, said: “This is an exciting time for the project as we await a decision from BEIS to determine which industrial carbon capture projects within the East Coast Cluster will be progressed to negotiations for funding support, which would bring us a step closer to making carbon capture a reality for the TV ERF.
“If BEIS ultimately choose to provide Carbon Capture and Storage funding support to the TV ERF it will provide more than one a half million people living and working across the region with a zero-carbon waste treatment solution and could be among the very first facilities of its kind in the UK to deploy CCS.”
