News in Brief - 15 March 2013
1. Directorate change at Viridor
Chief Executive of Viridor and Executive Director of waste management company Pennon Group plc, Colin Drummond is to retire, it has been announced.
Once a successor has been found (expected by September 2013), Drummond will take up the position of non-executive Chairman of Viridor.
Chairman of Pennon Group, Ken Harvey, said: "Colin has made a tremendous contribution to the success of Viridor and Pennon over many years. His leadership of Viridor and the development of its strategy have resulted in the company becoming one of the largest and best respected recycling, renewable energy and waste management businesses in the UK.
"I am delighted that he has agreed to become Chairman of Viridor so that we do not lose his experience and expertise."
2. Continuum Recycling sorts a quarter of a billion bottles
Continuum Recycling, a joint PET recycling venture between Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) and ECO Plastics, has announced that its £15 million facility in Hemswell, Lincolnshire has sorted quarter of a billion plastic bottles in its first nine months.
Associate Director for Recycling at CCE, Nick Brown, said: “In the short time since opening, Continuum has allowed us to achieve our ambition of incorporating 25 per cent recycled PET in all our plastic bottles and played a key role in helping to deliver a sustainable legacy for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
3. Shanks announce new UK Managing Director
Waste management firm Shanks Group plc has announced that Peter Eglington will replace Ian Goodfellow as its UK Managing Director following his resignation in May 2013.
Group Chief Executive, Peter Dilnot said: “I am delighted to welcome Peter to Shanks and look forward to working with him. He has a strong track record of delivering performance improvement in difficult markets, and has deep experience in logistics, continuous improvement and commercial effectiveness.
“Peter’s strong leadership will help us to grow the profitability of our UK business going forward.”
4. Leafield announces new ‘Constellation Envirobin’
Bin designer and manufacturer, Leafield Environmental, has announced a new ‘bin array’, the Constellation Envirobin, designed for ‘segregation at source’.
The bins have been designed in a ‘modular style’ and can accommodate between three and five industrial waste streams, for use in airports, shopping malls and ‘similar environments’.
Each bin compartment features a ‘lockable access door’, ‘100 litre rotationally moulded plastic liner’ and ‘forward facing handle’, allowing them to be positioned against a wall.
5. Shared management for waste partnerships
Councillors from Somerset Waste Partnership and Gloucestershire Joint Waste Partnership
The Somerset Waste Board (SWB) has announced that it has approved a shared management arrangement, reportedly the first of its kind, with the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Partnership (GJWP).
As of 1 April 2013, Managing Director of the SWB’s Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP), Steve Read, will be contracted two days a week as Head of Service for GJWP.
From this date, GJWP will take over the ‘waste functions’ of Cheltenham Borough Council, Cotswold District Council and Forest of Dean district Council as well as the ‘disposal and recycling centre management functions’ of Gloucestershire County Council.
Read said: “Moving to joint waste management arrangements is never an easy process but the Gloucestershire partner councils have seen from Somerset and elsewhere that this can bring both financial savings and service improvement benefits”.
6. ‘First ever’ inhaler recycling scheme launches
The ‘first ever’ UK-wide inhaler recycling and recovery scheme, Complete the Cycle, has been launched by pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), with support from Recycle Now, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and National Pharmacy Association.
The scheme, which will see the installation of recycling boxes in over 1,300 pharmacies, targets the 73 million inhalers put on the UK market every year and hopes to help divert some of the 64 per cent of inhalers thrown into the residual waste stream every year.
Speaking of the launch of the initiative, spokesperson for Recycle Now, Laura Underwood, said: "We’ve been pleased to add our support to this new initiative from GSK, which will help people recycled their discarded inhalers.
“We welcome schemes like this that enable more people to recycle more things, and we’re adding the details of the initiative to our website to help make them available to as wide an audience as possible.”
