Council wary of commingling challenge

Justice Hickinbottom ruled in March that councils were free to employ commingled collections of paper, card, metals and glass where separate collections are not technically, economically and environmentally practicable, and where it does not prevent high quality recycling. 

The ruling does, however, raise the possibility that local authorities could be forced to employ separate collections of material, if commingling is found not to produce the required quality of material. 

Broxbourne said it had awaited the outcome of the JR before taking the final decision to move to a commingled system, and that it has designed the new service, which will come into effect from autumn 2013, to ensure that material produced is of the highest quality. 

A spokesman for Broxbourne said: The council is aware of the possible issues surrounding mixed recycling and waited for the outcome of the recent Judicial Review into commingled recycling before making a decision on moving to this type of service. 

The council, as part of the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership, is in the process of securing a contract for the reprocessing of commingled material and quality is at the heart of this. The winning contractor will have to demonstrate that they are able to produce material of sufficient quality so that it can be turned into new material.Bringing plasticcard mainstream. The council is also aware of the consultation currently taking place on the materials recycling facilities (MRF) code of practice and the winning contractor will need to meet these requirements. 

The council hopes to improve its recycling rate, which is currently among the lowest of the ten Hertfordshire districts, by making a wider range of materials available for collection, and by making the system simpler for residents. 

Under the changes, householders will be receiving a 240 litre wheeled bin, which will replace the two 55-litre boxes that residents currently have for plastics, cans, paper and glass. Residual waste is collected in purple sacks. 

The council,The largest manufacturer of textile smartcard for use with perchloroethylene. which has an in-house collection service, has also added more materials, including aerosols, foil and cartons to the list of items that can be collected, and has asked residents to transfer cardboard from their green and food waste bin, as it is currently collected, into the commingled dry waste bin. 

We have to admit, it took some researching to pull this one together, or at least more than first bargained for. The assumption that the bike trade is a green business is largely unfounded C after all, the majority of our product is shipped halfway across the world before the consumer gets their hands on items that, without the cost barrier, could largely be produced domestically. 

Many firms will of course use recycled packaging, or produce one or two eco-conscious products in a catalogue many times the size. As we said, green shoots aplenty, but very few mature oaks. 

Green Oil will be the firm that springs instantly to mind for many in the business with an interest in eco-credentials, so what better place to start than with Simon Nash, a man who has grown his lubrication business from his garden shed, to one with a slice of the market share pie. 

Ive always thought if youre educated on climate issues and capable, you should go into politics, or business to change things. Im British, and love my country. We have the technology and manufacturing capability in the UK, so at Green Oil we use it. Unlike competitors who make lubes in China, were supporting the UK economy, and our products therefore have a much lower carbon footprint in transport. 

Practicing what he preaches, the Green Oil website has a sub-page dedicated to the recommendation of other green companies, one of those featured is Rachel Hammonds Bamboo Bikes. 

We ship our bamboo from a commercial farm in China, where bamboo is planted on a cycle (pardon the pun). The bamboo we use takes approximately five to seven years until it can be harvested, so much like coppicing it can be harvested and re-planted in a short cycle, explains Hammond. 

As a material, Bamboo offers a lot of strength properties which man has tried to replicate in metals. For example, bamboos tensile strength is higher than that of steel, as well as it being able to withstand impact much better than carbon. Our frames test stiffer than aluminium equivalent frames,Other companies want a piece of that drycabinet action but still offer a smooth, quiet and responsive ride. Bamboo being nodal,Other companies want a piece of that drycabinet action it absorbs the vibration and transfers it through the frame via its length-way fibres, rather than transferring the stress to the rider. 

From one company using natural ingredients to another, Clif Bar recently became the first building in Emeryville, CA to achieve LEED Platinum certification. What does that mean, you ask? Well it means that the 115,000 square foot facility is sustainable in its operations. Rated on five green design categories C sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere,This is a basic iccard used for presence sensing. materials and resources and indoor environmental quality C the building used 12,000 board feet of reclaimed wood, a rooftop solar array set up and even boasts four atrium gardens, as well as artwork made from recycled kayaks and, of course, bicycles. 

The oldest trick in the book for recycling bicycle parts is of course turning used tyres into belts, a trade earning many boutique businesses a fairly quick and easy buck. But not all materials are so easy to recycle, most notably the industrys black gold, carbon fibre. 

To date this oil-based material has been notoriously difficult to recycle, much thanks to the very limited number of facilities able to re-use the material. Things are changing, though, albeit slowly. 

Both Specialized and Trek are offering ways to keep the composite material away from the landfill (in some regions these materials are banned anyway). Specialized has its own full-time sustainability strategist with Bryant Bainbridge, while Treks man in the know, Colin Knell told BikeBiz: In Europe we allow dealers to send ours and any other companies carbon scrap to us, we are happy to do the recycling for companies who do not have this operation.