Be Eco Friendly

Sita announced a new scheme to build 10 plants designed to turn old plastic into diesel fuel.

The Suez Environment-owned waste company will create 120 jobs and spend nearly £50m building 10 state-of-the-art facilities, which will convert ‘end-of-life’ plastic waste into oil-based petrol. The move will prevent previously unusable plastic waste from ending up in landfill.

In what will be Europe’s first plastic-to-diesel plant, the scheme will see 60,000 tonnes of mixed plastics rubbish recycled in to fuel per year. The pioneering technology is made by Irish firm Cynar and marks the first commercially-capable plastic-to-diesel machinery.

Read more: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2716000.html

It has cost the government nearly £13 million to clean up the toxic and hazardous waste at part of the Olympic site, said the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA).

In total, the government spent £12.7m to control the contamination, which was mostly caused by radioactive rubbish on the River Lea’s banks in east London. The site is integral to the upcoming winter games as it marks the area where the main Olympic stadium will be built.

The contamination at the site was discovered in July 2006, when its previous owners abandoned the land. Tests from the Environment Agency showed that vinyl chloride had infected the groundwater in the soil, which is caused by chlorinated chemicals breaking down.

According to the Environment Agency, the cleanup was budgeted for when the site was purchased and therefore was not a surprise. It also added that the removal of the waste was only a small portion of the sum allotted to decontaminate Olympic Park.

Read more: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2721000.html

A new £1m recycling facility has opened in Leicestershire village for public use.

The county council-owned site sits on the edge of Moutsorrel and will replace the centre at Sileby, which has now gone defunct. Local residents first opposed the building on Granite Way as fears grew that the facility would cause noise pollution and increase traffic.

The council, however, said that the recycling centre would greatly reduce pollution and allow for more efficiency than the previous site. Protestors continued to oppose the move, however, saying the building would be too close to residential areas

Over a dozen houses are lined at the back of the centre, but it will allow for residents to recycle items more easily such as cooking oil, batteriers and Tetra Paks in addition to regular household rubbish. The council said that the facility would help reduce the city’s waste sent to landfill.

Read full article: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2731000.html

A new Environment Agency report shows that overall businesses are doing better at moving towards sustainability despite difficult economic times.

The Greener Business report, published yesterday, states that poor performance from some industries, particularly waste firms, has been causing the most pollution incidents across the sectors that fall under the Agency’s care. However, the report, which covers England and Wales, also says that the majority of operators have shown improvement in their attention to sensitive environmental issues.

Over half of the sites that fall under the Environment Agency’s jurisdiction earned a top ‘A’ rating from the governing body. This is a 47 per cent increase from last year. The Agency rates industries from A to E based on environmental performance and nearly nine of 10 firms were in the top two tiers.

Read full article: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2729000.html