Shropshire residents encouraged to recycle aluminium foil this Christmas

Mince pies, turkey, wine and trays of party food are all the ingredients of a great Christmas celebration.  Shropshire households are being urged to make it a ‘green’ Christmas by remembering to recycle all our festive aluminium packaging including foil trays, aerosols, screw caps and tin foil.

With the average Shropshire household expected to generate an extra 30% of rubbish over the festive period its really important to use your kerbside recycling scheme to recycle more. 

At Christmas you’ll see aluminium foil containers being used in a wide range of food packaging including mince pies, oven-ready food such as turkey, sausages, party food and pre-prepared vegetables. Aerosols are a major feature in our bathrooms and bedrooms, used in deodorants, body sprays and haircare products. Once empty, all can be recycled under the scheme.

Shropshire-based Rick Hindley who is Executive director of the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) Rick Hindley says: “Aluminium food and drink cans are already a familiar sight in most household recycling schemes, but it’s great to see that Shropshire also collects aerosols, foil trays, tin foil, metal lids from jars and aluminium screw caps from bottles too especially as we use more of them around Christmas. More than 580 million aerosols are used in the UK each year, plus 16,000 tonnes of foil trays – so recycling them has huge potential to save energy and cut the amount of waste going to landfill.”

Recycle your aerosols

Each year on average, the UK uses around 600 million aerosols – that works out at 27 households a year. The main body of an aerosol is usually made from tin-plated steel or aluminium, both of which are 100 per cent recyclable.

You can recycle any aerosol cans in Shropshire really easily.  Either pop them in your box at home with your cans and plastic or drop them off at your nearest recycling site with the cans, tins and aluminium foil.

Please remember:

• Make sure it is empty


• Do not attempt to pierce or squash the can


• Place in with your kerbside recycling box (or take it to a recycling centre)

Metal Matters to Shropshire

Shropshire Council and their contractor Veolia are working in partnership with recycling industry body Alupro to encourage residents across Shropshire to recycle more metal as part of their ‘Metal Matters’ campaign.  Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters will be helping man roadshow events across the county in the coming months to help remind residents to recycle more cans, tins, aerosols, aluminium trays and foil.  

 

Leaflets produced with sponsorship from Alupro will soon be dropping through letterboxes reminding people to recycle more metal food and drinks packaging using their kerbside recycling service.

Rick Hindley, Chief Executive of Alupro added “The aim of MetalMatters is to help increase metal recycling by positively changing residents behaviour.” 

“Our partnership with Shropshire Council and Veolia delivers on all counts. It reinforces our experience with previous MetalMatters campaigns that investment in householder communications can make a real difference to recycling capture rates, and go on to deliver cost-effective results for local authorities and their waste management partners.  For more information on the campaign visit www.metalmatters.org.uk “

Metal recycling facts:

• Recycling a tonne of steel saves 1.5 tonnes of iron ore & reduces CO2 emissions by 80%.

• Recycling a tonne of aluminium saves 9 tonnes of C02 emissions and four tonnes of bauxite – the raw material from which aluminium is made.

• Metal can be recycled again and again indefinitely.

• Recycling seven cans saves enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 26 hours.

• In as little as six weeks, the empty can you put in your recycling could be transformed and back on the supermarket shelf.

Shrewsbury commercial composting site investment

Shropshire farming and composting business Agripost Ltd. (who process all your garden waste) are making sustainability a top priority on their mixed farming unit in Cardeston near Shrewsbury.  The farm already acts as the central hub for the Councils garden waste collection and processes up to 15,000 tonnes of green waste every year helping to reduce landfill and make a high quality compost to spread on their land. 

Now the growing local business has erected a 50kW wind turbine on site to add to the existing biomass boiler and 200kW solar (PV) array mounted on the roofs of their poultry units.

Farmer & Managing Director, Mark Gethin said “The overall power needs of the poultry unit is some 300,000kw per annum. The solar panels provide approximately half of this, depending on the amount of daylight, sunshine and season. The proposed wind turbine will generate between 144,000 to 170,000 kw per year and in particular will generate electricity in winter and at night when the poultry units are net users of non PV energy.  The size of the wind turbine was chosen deliberately to generate the shortfall in renewable energy and for the first time will mean we are effectively self sufficient in power as a farm business” 

“We are aiming to become carbon neutral on the farm and the turbine investment is another way for us to generate our own electricity, complementing the solar panels perfectly.  We are also building an in-vessel composting facility to allow us to also compost food waste along side the green waste and an anaerobic digester to process food waste, slurry and chicken litter” he added

Bucknell Parish Litter Pickers

Primary tabsesidents in Bucknell and surrounding parts of south Shropshire are taking action to improve their environment through regular community litter picking.  Pictured above (left to right) are locals Mike, Martin & Graham who are just part of a much larger group of committed volunteers.

Residents in Bucknell and surrounding parts of south Shropshire are taking action to improve their environment through regular community litter picking.  Pictured above (left to right) are locals Mike, Martin & Graham who are just part of a much larger group of committed volunteers.  The group are making using new equipment from local Herefordshire-based manufacturers Helping Hand Ltd. purchased using a grant from Shropshire Councils Local Joint Committe.

The group of volunteers are part of the 'Bedstone and Bucknell Good Neighbours' group, formed to keep their community free of litter and rubbish. The recieved a grant of £150 from the LJC to purchase bags, gloves, litter pickers and fluorescent jackets to help them keep safe and clean whilst doing their work. Once the litter is collected by the volunteers its then picked up by Shropshire Councils Street Cleansing Service and then disposed of professionally through our contract with Veolia.

Its fanstastic to see people who care about their environment making a real difference and lets hope it inspires other people across Shropshire to follow their lead.  If you want to get involved contact the Council directly.  We can provide expert advice, equipment and support with all aspects of collecting and disposing of litter if you want to help us keep Shropshire tidy. 

Christmas tree recycling 2014

Did you know? In the UK we get through almost 8 million real Christmas trees every year!

We estimate therefore that there must be about 60,000 dead Christmas trees left over in the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin this January 2014! Please don't let them go to waste. 

You can compost them at home but its quite a challenge for most of us with small back gardens, so the lazy option to recycle real Christmas trees simply by putting them out for collection along with your garden waste or taking them to the local tip.  All real Christmas trees collected will get sent for commercial composting on local farms where they are shredded and rotted down to be turned into a valuable soil improver for local farmers.

Don't forget - remove any tinsel and other decorations first!

Compostable caddy liners to help Shropshire recycle more food waste

Shropshire Council is reminding residents in north and south Shropshire that special compostable liners are available to help them recycle their food waste.   

The liners are made from corn starch and are officially tested to be compostable so you can use them to bag up your kitchen waste and then add it to your green garden waste collection bin. The idea is to help residents to recycle more because using kitchen caddies and liners makes it clean and easy to collect up food waste in the kitchen.  

   

All the food waste and garden waste that they collect mixed together in these areas is taken to a specialist composting facility to be made into bags of compost - the type you buy from the garden center.  The liners can be purchased from the following council reception points -

• Ellesmere Library 
• Cheshire Street, Market Drayton
• Edinburgh House, Wem
• Whitchurch Heritage Centre
• Corve Street, Ludlow
• Church Stretton Library
• Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre, Craven Arms
• Cleobury Country Centre, Cleobury Mortimer
• Enterprise House, Bishop’s Castle.

Alternatively if you prefer to have them delivered liners can also be purchased over the phone, on 0844 472 1871, or online using the new www.shropshire.caddyliners.com web-based service. 

Furniture re-use in Shropshire

Furniture re-use in Shropshire

We often get asked when we are out promoting waste minimisation in Shropshire with Shropshire Master Composters about how to deal with big bulky items like furniture and white goods - especially if you dont have a car to get to the tip. Luckily in Shropshire there are several local furniture re-use schemes.  All schemes collect good quality furniture, electrical items, white goods, bedding, beds, curtains, crockery and cutlery - and pass them on to those in need. 

Save yourself a trip to the tip, contact your local scheme to arrange a collection:

• Shrewsbury Furniture Scheme - 01743 246668
• Oswestry & North Shropshire Furniture Scheme - 01691 679817
• South Shropshire Furniture Scheme - 01584 877788
• Bridgnorth District Furniture Scheme - 01746 764494
• Reviive Shop in Shrewsbury - 01743 588458

What is a furniture reuse scheme?

All schemes are non-profit groups set up to recycle unwanted items within Shropshire. Most have some capacity to restore and repair items but they prefer working, good quality items. The schemes are run by a combination of paid staff, trainees and volunteers.

What items cant they collect?

• Gas appliances of any sort.
• Soft furnishings without Fire Regulation labels.
• Glass items without British Standards kite-mark.

What happens to the items?

Wherever possible the items are repaired and reused by selling them on at low prices. This helps to benefit local Shropshire residents on low incomes.

For more information visit: - 

 

• Shrewsbury Furniture Scheme
• Oswestry furniture recycling scheme
• South Shropshire furniture scheme
• Bridgnorth Furniture Scheme
• Reviive
• Telford Furniture Scheme
• Furniture re-use network

Real nappies reduce waste

It’s fair to say that hard pressed families with children could do with watching the pennies right now, and let’s face it, literally throwing away money is the last thing anyone would want to be doing.  But that’s exactly what parents who use disposable nappies are doing.

The odd tenner here and there on packets of nappies seems like it’s not a major cost, but have you ever actually sat down and added up the full cost of these regular purchases?
 
Well from birth to potty your baby will need about 5,000 nappy changes – so you’re talking about spending around £750 on disposable nappies alone!  So your decision on nappies will have a big impact on your wallet and the planet.  On average during that first two years a baby will produce a tonne of dirty nappies before they’re even potty trained!  And disposable nappies cost you twice, as a taxpayer you pay again to have them landfilled. Now that really adds up!

But it doesn’t have to be that way – you can use modern real washable cotton nappies instead. By using real nappies, you can reduce waste and save money. Of course you have to pay up front to buy the washable nappies and the liners (you can kit your baby out with all the real nappy gear they need from the high street for about £250).  Then you have to consider washing powder and ever rising electricity costs if you’re washing nappies a lot, but even when you factor this in you could still save £400 compared to buying disposables and double that if you re-use the kit again on a second baby.

Analysis of what’s in our bins in Shropshire has shown that disposable nappies make up about 4% of total household waste.  This means an incredible 6,000 tonnes of disposable nappies end up buried in landfill sites in Shropshire every year.
 
So if you want to help tackle this waste mountain and save yourself some money then contact the Real Nappy Advisory Service via their website http://www.goreal.org.uk/

Windfall fruit

As the nights draw in and we enter the season of 'mists and mellow fruitfulness' many of us will find our gardens and driveways carpeted in windfall fruit. 

We have had a few queries of late about this relating to this issue because whilst of course the best thing to do with windfall fruit is a) Eat it! and b) home compost it some folk seem to be unsure about if you can include this with your garden waste for the council collections.

Yes windfall fruit and vegetables from the garden are garden waste not food waste.  So it is perfectly OK to add this to the Councils garden waste collection service.

The confusion seems to have arisen because most garden waste in Shropshire goes for on-farm composting and following the BSE & Foot & Mouth strict Animal Byproduct Regulations were introduced which mean that food waste cannot be composted on farms.
Whilst of course fruit and vegetables are not an animal byproduct, the ban applies to anything from the kitchen so captures all food waste.  The distinction with material from your garden (whether edible or not) is clearly laid out in guidelines produced by the Department for the Environment.  The point at which this would change would be if you brought the items into your kitchen.  Anything which has been in the kitchen, could potentially be cross contaminated with pathogens from other foodstuffs and thus would then be deemed to be kitchen waste which cannot currently be composted on farms due to the Animal Byproduct Regulations.

Hopefully that clears up any confusion? Because looking around my area I can see tonnes of fruit all over the ground right now and I would hate to think that might end up in landfill when it is perfectly OK to compost it with your garden waste.

South Shropshire residents helped to recycle more food waste

South Shropshire residents in the town of Bishop’s Castle, and the surrounding villages of Clun, Marton, Chirbury and Worthern, are to be provided with a kitchen caddy to encourage them to make full use of the area’s food recycling service.

Everyone in this area can already add food waste to their garden waste, as it goes to a specialist in-vessel composting facility to make high quality compost – the type you buy from garden centres.

The caddies, were delivered to households last week to enable people to collect their food waste before putting it into the garden waste bin. Each caddy comes with an instruction leaflet and a starter pack of special compostable liners to make it easy for residents to separate food waste in the kitchen.

The aim is that people will use the new caddies to collect up all their kitchen food waste (including meat, fish, bones, pasta, rice, tea bags, plate scrapings, peelings and leftovers) to keep it separate from the other rubbish which goes for disposal.

Small businesses 'throw away' £463m in 2013

Data released by waste management company Veolia, shows that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will ‘throw away’ as much as £463 million in landfill tax during 2013.

By sending waste to landfill, rather than recycling it, SMEs are likely to fall foul of landfill tax which, as of 1 April 2013, stands at £72 per tonne, up from £64 in 2012.

Veolia warns that unless SMEs recycle more, that figure will only increase as landfill tax rises to £80 per tonne in 2014/15.

Chief Executive Officer of Veolia, Estelle Brachlianoff, said: We have now reached a stage where it is much more expensive to send waste to landfill than it is to recycle.  The solution is to develop a recycling mindset in the workplace based on segregating materials at source.

What to do with leftover paint in Shropshire

Shropshire residents are being reminded about issues surrounding waste paint as part of an innovative partnership between Shropshires local authorities and the national DIY chain B&Q.

The aim is to reduce the environmental impact of paint. The Council provides facilities which accept all types of household paint at the main Household Recycling Centre’s (HRCs). Residents can bring leftover paint here where it will be stored safely and then disposed of professionally.

Many paints are water-based and are not considered hazardous. However some paint contains solvents which need specialist treatment so they do not harm the environment when disposed of.

The message for all residents is that you should never:

• empty paint into drains or watercourses.

• throw paint away in your rubbish bin or sack.

• put paint on a bonfire

Before you dispose of leftover paint you should try and use it up yourself or you can donate it to a local community paint re-use project. For example you can advertise your paint as free to a good home on websites like www.freegle.org.uk.

You can recycle metal paint tins (so long as they are empty) by putting them in the scrap metal skip at any of the Household Recycling Centres but the paint itself cannot be recycled at present in Shropshire.

A guidance leaflet has been sponsored by B&Q and the leaflets will be made available across B&Q stores in the county as well as through Council sites such as libraries.

Local charities help develop national recycling campaign

 
Local charities South Shropshire Furniture Scheme & Shropshire Housing Alliance have been involved in a national project to develop a campaign to encourage people to donate old furniture and appliances for re-use and recycling.

In 2012, the schemes were selected by national waste experts WRAP as one of six national pilots to develop and test a range of communications materials aimed at increasing re-use of textiles and bulky waste.

Now thanks to the success of their work the campaign is being rolled out nationally and so  all local authorities, charities and other re-use organisations across the UK can now have access to free tried and tested marketing materials to help promote their work.

The Shropshire pilot helped prove the effectiveness of the campaign by showing an increase in the amount of material they would normally collect for re-use.  In addition to this post campaign monitoring found that 45% of householders who recalled the communications said they will think about re-use more when getting rid of unwanted items in future.  The Shropshire pilot also had the highest level of recall of any of the pilots. 

The project which was delivered in partnership with the local authorities in Shropshire utilised a variety of communications activities including a leaflet drop to all households in the target area.  Other communications included press releases, roadshows, posters, banners, online and social media activity.

Instructions on how to access the full range of downloadable campaign materials are available now from the RecycleNow partners website.

Sue Ryder Shop Shrewsbury

People in Shrewsbury are lucky to have the benefit of free household collections of large appliances and other household goods thanks to local charity shop Sue Ryder. 

 

Based on Roushill in the town centre - Sue Ryder are a leading national charity who do alot of good work in the community and use their shop to raise funds for this charitable work.  So if you are looking to de-clutter and have any items that are good enough to be resold, contact your local shop. They can if you like arrange for a free collection and you'll know that your item is being put to good use in raising money for charity.

 
This shop is also a great place to pick up good quality clothes, or that one-off piece of interesting bric-a-brac, all at bargain prices.  Their shop is located within easy walk of the main town centre and car parking on Roushill.

What do they want? Well - basically anything they can sell!

• Clothing and Accessories
• Fridges and freezers
• TVs
• Sofas
• Bric-a-brac
• Books, Records, CDs and DVDs
• Children's Wear
• Electrical items
• Exercise Equipment
• Jewellry
• Paintings 
• Furniture
• Doll's Houses
• Guitars and Musical instruments

Location: - 

10 Roushill Bank,
Shrewsbury,
Shropshire,
SY1 1PN

Telephone - 01743 356046

Manager - Judy Walker

Email - roushill4148@suerydercare.org  

Opening times -  

• Monday 9.00 - 5.00
• Tuesday 9.00 - 5.00
• Wednesday 9.00 - 5.00
• Thursday 9.00 - 5.00
• Friday 9.00 - 5.00
• Saturday 9.00 - 5.00
• Sunday 10.00 - 4.00

Remember as well as the shop - Sue Ryder can be found on e-bay too.

Christmas tree recycling

Did you know? In the UK we get through 8 million real Christmas trees every year! 

As such we estimate there are around 55,000 dead Christmas trees left over across the Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin area alone.  Please don't let them go to waste.  They make a great addition to your home compost heap but if you cannot manage them at home the local Councils can deal with them for you.

You can recycle real Christmas trees simply by putting them out for collection along with your garden waste or taking them to your local recycling centre.  All real Christmas trees collected will get sent for composting and turned into valuable soil improver for local farmers and horticulturalists to grow food with.

   

Top tips

• Make sure you put the tree out on the correct day for your garden waste collection.
• If you can please try to get the tree into your garden waste bin.
• If you cannot, you may leave the tree next to your garden waste bin.
• To help the crews please cut trees down to a maximum 5 foot (1.5m) lengths.
• Please make sure you remove any tinsel and other decorations first

Christmas recycling collections

The countdown to Christmas has started, and across Shropshire a huge effort is going into encouraging us all to keep the party going by remembering to keep recycling over the festive period.  Its been a vintage year for recycling in Shropshire and its great that we are recycling more at home than ever before and for three quarters of us recycling is now a way of life.
And the great news is, the recycling rate for Shropshire has increased again to around 53% of all domestic waste now being recycled.



Over Christmas and New Year is a time for entertaining and we all know that with all those extra guests we'll be having a few cheeky drinks so there is going to be more glass bottles and cans to recycle in particular.  The good news is the Council are now doing their bit too by helping us all to recycle our extra plastic not just bottles, but plastic pots, tubs and trays.  So as well as paper, cans, tins, aerosols, tin foil, glass bottles and jars they now pick up plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, so this Christmas all those plastic trays from biscuits, chocolates and mince pies can go for recycling now, helping to reduce what ends up in the bin.

Remember that despite the rescheduled dates all the recycling collections keep going over the festive season including the garden waste service.  So assuming we're not completely snowed under all that Christmas recycling can be put out in your boxes and will be picked up by the crews and taken to the recycling centre.  So although we will all be busy over this period, lets keep a good thing going and keep recycling.

Find out about when your re-scheduled recycling pick ups are due by visiting www.shropshire.gov.uk/binday

Shrewsbury sinks food waste

An exciting new national study has been launched in Shropshire as part of the Local Government Association’s Waste Innovation Programme. The project will investigate the impact of Food Waste Disposers (FWD), which are being fitted in all the homes in the new David Wilson Homes development, Riverside Meadows, which is on the site of the old Shrewsbury Town FC football stadium in Shrewsbury.

Philippa Roberts, Managing Director of Low and Behold, who are managing the project explained:

“Waste water treatment works use Anaerobic Digestion to process their sewage. This is the same technology that is used to process food waste; producing renewable energy in the process. By allowing the householders at Riverside Meadows to put their food waste down their sinks, we are hoping to see a cost saving for the Council.”

She explained “Much of the project monitoring and evaluation will be involve the sewer network and waste water treatment works so the impacts on the sewer network and any cost implications of this are a critical element of the pilot project.

Councillor Peter Fleming, the Chair of the LGA, who funded this project said:

“Local government has long been recognised as the most efficient part of the public sector. But at a time of immense budget pressure – and with the prospect of further severe funding cuts at the next spending review – councils face their greatest challenge yet to reshape services in a way that meets the needs of local residents while operating within the new financial realities. This is why exploring innovative solutions to waste management is crucial. By exploring new ways of dealing with waste we open the door to vast potential savings for Councils.”

The Waste Innovation Programme will trial the use of Food Waste Disposers supplied by Insinkerator UK which are electrically powered units which are plumbed into kitchen sinks.  These are widely used across the USA but less so in the UK to date.  The units grind food waste into tiny particles (less than 4mm) which can then simply wash down the sink.  This will enable the residents to send their food waste for anaerobic digestion without the need for it to be collected.  As well as making it clean, quick and easy for the residents to minimise what ends up in their bins, this project will also help to produce renewable energy, reduce waste to landfill whilst also opening up potentially huge savings for local Councils. 

Across the UK local authorities spend billions of pounds of taxpayers money collecting and disposing of waste each year and with around one-fifth of all this waste being food waste it makes sense to look at all available options for addressing this issue.  In particular in flats where waste storage and collection is problematic and where some people wont have access to a garden for home composting, this type of unit may be an effective way to manage food waste in a sustainable, cost-effective and simple manner.

Save Money and reduce food waste this Christmas

Did you know that the average grocery bill for Christmas is £169!  For every household in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin thats £34 million pounds! 

So what’s the secret to saving money this year? Love Food Hate Waste has some thoughts…

1. It pays to plan

• Christmas is probably the one time of year when even the most ‘last minute’ of us will sit down, ponder over who is coming to stay and make some sort of plan. Planning your meals in advance will save you time, and ensure you always have something to feed the hungry hordes.

• Take a look in your cupboards, fridge and freezer and make note of what foods you already have, this will help you to avoid doubling up when hitting the shops.

Use the Love Food Hate Waste on-line portion planner whether you're cooking for family or a party - see www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for further information.


2. Know your dates

As well as keeping up with all the social dates in your diary, don’t forget to keep an eye on the dates in your fridge too. Use up foods with the shortest dates first, and when shopping check to see if fresh foods can be frozen in case you don’t get round to eating them over the festivities.

• Best before dates are for quality, so you can eat these foods after this date, they just may no longer be at their best – eggs are the exception which should be eaten by the use by date, but can be eaten up to 2 days after if cooked thoroughly.

• Use by dates are for safety, you can eat or freeze foods right up to the day before the use by date.

3. Lovely leftovers

• Leftovers of bubble and squeak and cold turkey sandwiches are a Boxing Day tradition.

• This year spice things up with a Christmas curry; try our turkey and chickpea coconut curry and use up those leftover veggies with our mixed vegetable curry.

• Transform your Christmas panettone into a lovely bread and butter pudding and your leftover Christmas pudding into a luxurious ice cream.

4. Perfect portions

Catering for family and friends, not to mention the unexpected guests, often leaves us unsure of how much to cook. Our Christmas dinner portion calculator and party portions calculator, remove the guess work by suggesting how much to cook.

5. Savvy storage

Simple tips on storing our foods over the festive period can help us make the most of them, and make them last into the New Year.

• Ensure your vegetables are at their best for the main meal by keeping them in the fridge; most vegetables will stay fresher for longer stored in the fridge in the pack or bag they came in.

• Most of our Christmas leftovers will keep for up to two days well wrapped in the fridge, or pop them in the freezer to have on a chilly January evening.

Just think what you could do with an extra £50 in your pocket this Christmas. The average family in Shropshire throws away £50 worth of food every single month - so visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Changes to waste collection dates

We all know when Santa is coming, but do you know when your bin man is coming this Christmas?

You might know what day your bins and boxes are 'normally' collected but don’t forget, all residents in Shropshire will have their waste collection day affected by the Christmas bank holidays, so please double check your calendar!

Staff from Veolia are out distributing reminder leaflets to every home in Shropshire this week, so look out for your leaflet or visit www.shropshire.gov.uk/binday to confirm your revised collection dates.