Second anniversary of WEEE

It's now July 2009 and just over two years since the WEEE directive came into effect in the UK.

Personally, I haven't seen very much in the way of publicity to the general public about what they need to do with their old electronic waste, and I'd say that most of my friends wouldn't know what to do with their electronic and electrical waste, which is rather worrying.

With large items such as washing machines and fridges these are more likely to go into the proper channels as they are bulky and require special pick ups or would have to be transported to CA sites. But a friend told me how he had just put his old hi-fi in the bin the other day, and it is this type of smaller electrical and electronic waste item that I fear is still getting into the general waste stream - and an area where we really need to step up our recycling efforts.

Andrea Height, MRW, deputy editor

When it all seems like a lot of effort

It's almost two years since the implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive in the UK.

I often think if I wasn't in a job related to the waste and recycling sector I would have no idea that there is EU legislation requiring us to recycle our electrical waste. Of course, because I do know about it, I feel obligated to recycle my toaster that blew up the other week.

I live in a flat in central London, don't have a car and have been given a replacement toaster by my mum who had a spare one. I want to recycle my toaster but the nearest CA site is on the other side of the river and requires some effort to get there.

Of course, I'm willing to put in the effort to take my old toaster to the CA site by public transport but there will be many more people who simply won't go to the trouble. We have to be aware that if we don't make it easier for people to recycle such items they simply won't bother.

Andrea Height, MRW, deputy editor

Embracing new media to push the recycling message

It's interesting to see recycling campaigners embrace the new forms of technology and communication that are now available to get their messages out. This week Friends of Glass, set up by the Federation of European manufacturers of glass packaging containers has started a 'TweetRecycle' challenge on twitter. It is urging twitter users - and encouraging those not using twitter to do so - to tweet about the number of glass containers they have recycled. It hopes that tweeters will have collectively recycled 75,000 bottles over the next three months and in tweeting about it also raised awareness about glass recycling.

Find out more at:

http://bloginabottle.com/

Glass recycling's own singing sensation

Move over Susan Boyle, glass recycling has its own singing sensation - Hank the Singing Bottle. He's becoming quite the YouTube hit, with well over 17,000 views last time I checked.

Hank is fronting a new campaign, Friends of Glass, which the European Container Glass Federation is behind. In the YouTube clip, he takes us through his life as various different glass containers, all in song.

Cleverly he's also got a catch phrase 'I'll be back' - which he is stunned to hear a certain Hollywood actor say during his time as a glass make up container in LA.

What the campaign hopes to do is put out the message that glass and glass recycling are good and good for the environment.

The video is a humourous way of engaging the public and it is cleverly one of those links that people are likely to forward on to friends and colleagues. Perhaps there's something that other recyclable materials can learn from this...

See the clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9a0gzx_HIE

Andrea Height, MRW, deputy editor

Second World War thrift - can it work now?

We did a story on www.mrw.co.uk last week about how 60% of people think we need a World War II attitude to cut waste.

Certainly, the attitude of the 1940's would go a long way to meeting the waste minimisation and re-use sections at the top of the waste hieararchy.

The difficulty is that we live in completely different times. Even in this recession, as a population we have a lot more than (in my case) our grandparents did and access to greater consumer choice. The most obvious example being that rationing in the '40's was essential and was a strong factor in making people thrifty with what they had - now it would be seen as ridiculous.

But, there is certainly a lot we can learn from those times and a bit of thrift now would go a long way.

WRAP to be single delivery body

WRAP have today announced that they are to be the single delivery body for a range of resource efficiency services. This seems like a good idea to me as it means more clarity and fingers crossed more efficient services.

To see more of this story from MRW

Paul Sanderson, editor, MRW

Energy from waste or incineration?

I chaired a seminar last week and energy from waste was high on the agenda.

Despite my efforts to negotiate a middle ground, it was clear that there was a divide between supporters of combined heat and power plants from the waste industry and engineers and those from the environmental lobby such as Friends of the Earth.

Indeed, it was interesting to see their use of terminology with the waste industry and engineering delegates talking of EfW and CHP and the environmentalists of incineration.

My view is that EfW and CHP has a place in a well structured hierarchy of waste with the usual re-use and recycle etc coming first. Terms such as incineration do an injustice to efficient modern plants as it gives the impression of burning waste with a stack belching out untreated pollutants. Maybe that is why the enviornmental lobby are so keen to use the word incineration.

Paul Sanderson, editor, MRW and www.mrw.co.uk

Mobius loop

I think if you were to ask people in the UK to identify what is the recycling symbol between the Recycle Now logo and the Mobius Loop logo, most would choose the latter.

There is some news emerging tomorrow which will be positive, but will also highlight the difficulty in communicating the recycling message when the Mobius Loop remains ubiqitous in the minds of the public.

Maybe we'd have been sticking with what was already a well known logo?

Paul Sanderson, editor, MRW
www.mrw.co.uk

Inspiration and innovation

Sometimes you meet people who are brimming with so much enthusiasm it really is quite infectious and gives you back your zest for life. Last week I went along to Ecobuild, a trade exhibition for those involved with sustainable design and construction, and met a number of people who had seen an opportunity, had a vision and made it happen.

There was Simon Greer from Nulife Glass, who had spent about 13 years trying to find a method of taking the hazardous lead out of the cathode ray tube (CRT) glass that is found in old television screens and computer monitors. He was told it wasn't possible, but persevered and has now cracked the problem and proved his solution. This means both the lead and the glass can be reused as raw materials and the glass is no longer hazardous. The glass can go into applications as diverse as cufflinks, wall and floor tiles, kitchen worktops and high-grade aggregates.

Working with one of last year's National Recycling Award winners, GLASSeco, Simon has even used some of the glass he had separated out from old TV screens for making his own kitchen worktops.

Donald Crawley, one of GLASSeco's directors, had equally spent about 10 years of his life working out how he could find a better use for glass waste that was ending up in landfill. MRW magazine has previously covered the story of how he experimented with mixing waste glass with resin in his garden shed to create worktops. A chance break led to him making a worktop for an eco-house featured in Grand Designs and judging by the number of people at his stand at the exhibition, it's a product people are really interested in.

GLASSeco is now working with Chamois, who make kitchens using 100% recycled timber panels, so you can get a truly recycled kitchen.

And finally there was Les Owens, the managing director of BuilderScrap, a website designed to prevent construction waste from going to landfill. The free service acts like a match-maker for those wanting building materials and those with building materials to get rid of. A builder himself, Les knows how builders think and operate, so has made the website 'builder-friendly' and easy to upload photos and information from site.

It's built around the premise of why you would want to pay to have skips of perfectly usable material thrown away when you could give it to someone who wants it for free. Why indeed. All three were a really good example of thinking outide the box and finding innovative solutions. And they were a real inspiration.

Andrea Height, Deputy Editor, MRW

PFI funding can only be good news

We are reporting on MRW today that the Treasury is to put £3.5 billion into waste PFI projects.

Infrastructure is desperately needed in the recycling and waste sector and I am sure this will give a welcome boost when commercial funding is proving hard to come by.

My sources tell me Greater Manchester is on the brink of being signed - I'm holding my breath in anticipation! Once it is, and with this funding boost, we might actually see a great deal more on the horizon such as Merseyside and North London.

See the story in full on MRW.

Paul Sanderson, Editor, MRW (Materials Recycling Week)

Easter egg packaging

Apparently some Easter egg manufacturers have managed to reduce the amount of packaging on their products by about 50%! Well done! Read about reduced Easter egg packaging here.

Easter egg packaging is never going to be a huge proportion of the waste stream as it is seasonal in nature and therefore volumes aren't high. But it is hugely symbolic of wasteful packaging where most of it is for sales impact rather than protection of the product.

The most environmentally friendly option would probably be to buy a bar of chocolate, but that wouldn't be much fun would it?

Paul Sanderson, Editor, MRW and http://www.mrw.co.uk/