Roundup of eye-catching recycling and waste stories making the news
Coffee Cups
This issue isn’t going anywhere, thanks in part to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for pointing the lense on this matter and making it something none of us can ignore. The latest development is Costa have now pledged to recycle ALL coffee cups, not just their own! Not only that but they will also offer a discount to anyone using a reusable cup, even if it is branded with a competitiors logo. One big issue raised was that the cups are made of a difficult to recycle combination of paper & plastic. But after a successful trial in London, the cups will be transported by Veolia to specialist waste processing plants, that are able to recycle them. Costa UK & Ireland Managing Director Jason Cotta added that “we are working hard to find a cup that can be recycled anywhere”.
Staying on the subject of coffee but this time the used grounds – Caffé Nero are to extend their coffee to biofuel initiative beyond greater London. After also taking the heat from Hugh’s War on Waste, Nero pledged a company-wide push towards a circular economy. So far they expect to have converted 218 tonnes of used coffee grounds into 98 tonnes of biomass pellets. Hopefully, seeing the success of this, other coffee giants will follow suit.
Pelletising coffee for biofuel is a great option, there are also many other things that can be pelleted, if the results are not suitable for biofuel, then perhaps animal bedding could be an alternative. Call us to find out more.
IKEA Zero Waste
Recently Ikea announced that it had achieved zero waste for the first time in the UK, no longer sending any waste to landfill.
They are now even turning a profit from their waste. The dreaded and difficult to recycle pallet wrap is now being kept by Ikea and used to create some of their products, such as the TOMAT spray bottle.
Ikea are really at the fore-front of making sustainable living affordable for all. Just last week CIWM published an article about the store’s launch of kitchen fronts made from recycled PET bottles and wood.
H&M, Nike and Interface are all doing their part in diverting waste from landfill, who’ll be next?
If you are struggling with segregating your plastics then the Knapzak source segregation system could be the ideal solution for you, find out more here.
Suez to launch Uber Style waste app
The trend toward intelligent waste measuring and collecting seems to be gaining momentum, with the news that an Uber-style waste app will be coming to Europe.
MRW report that “Rubicon Global manages a network of independent companies which bid for waste from business customers. Its software finds places to recycle, resell and transport the materials”. They have recently signed a deal with Suez to bring this technology to Europe, who will be using the technology to “modernise and transform” its business. This is a big step forward in the trend toward intelligent waste handling and collection.
We here at PRM launched the IntelliBACE to the UK at the RWM last year, a cloud based technology for balers and compactors, offering the customer full transparency and the ability to mange their waste from a central location. If you would like to find out more about this, please do give us a call.
7 year old runs own Recycling Company
And to finish, a heart warming story of a young boy in the US who is running his own recycling business. Have a read – he’s an inspiration to us all.
If you are interested in pelletising, food waste digestion, intelligent balers, or any other waste solution, then please do get in touch.
Recycling News Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ikea-sustainability-report-2016_uk_5878f95be4b074eb45cdb3e4
https://www.mrw.co.uk/latest/uber-style-waste-app-moves-into-europe/10016365.article
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/26/costa-coffee-launches-in-store-cup-recycling-scheme
http://www.edie.net/news/5/Caffe-Nero-London-coffee-waste-to-biofuel-Biobean-First-Mile-partnership/
